To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire Review

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To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire ReviewMany books have been written about real-life tragedies, and in this sense, Cowan and Kuenster's book is no different. However, there is a thin line in these type of books between boring the reader by burying the human aspect of the story with an overload of factual material and becoming nothing more than a non-fiction hankie weeper. Quite a few books have disappointed me in the past by straying to either one side or the other. Not so with this one. It is a solid piece of reporting that does not lose the human dimension of the tragedy. Nor does it obscure the investigation and the facts with too much emphasis on the human dimension.
The fire at Our Lady of the Angels was one of the worst tragedies to strike America, made even more so in that the vast majority of its victims were innocent children. The authors follow the story from the day it occured to the fire itself and the heroic efforts of the fire department to the later delegation of blame and recriminations from what was seen as a bureaucratic conspiracy. In doing so they manage to bring the reader into the story not merely as a spectator but almost as a fellow reporter, sharing not only facts, but also conjectures and whispers plus personal items about the victims, always careful always to straddle the line between objectivity and thje trap of a "crusading" journalism. By letting the story speak for itself, they bring it home all the more forcefully, to where no one who reads it will remain unaffected.
This book should also serve as a warning against the false sense of security that this sort of thing cannot happen again. There are still many schools, public and private, at risk, and this is a book that should be read by every parent with children still in school, and not only during Fire Prevention Week.To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire Overview

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The Eastland Disaster (Images of America) Review

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The Eastland Disaster (Images of America) ReviewI'm going to cheat. I'm going to write one review and use it on three separate books. No doubt I'll offend the review gods at Amazon, but this subject merits it. Even though I live only 4 hours away from Chicago, I had never heard of the Eastland until I was searching for something entirely different and found a Western Electric website mentioning it. This is an utterly incredible story. I promptly ordered "The Sinking of the Eastland." The book goes into a fair amount of detail about the tragedy itself, yet its primary purpose is to describe the people involved and how they were affected. The author never claims to be a technical authority and instead makes reference several times to another book "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic." I promptly ordered that one as well and while searching for additional information I learned of a third book "The Eastland Disaster (Images of America)." That one was ordered as well. Since you have read this far, you are obviously interested in my opinions and in my opinion, all three are required reading to grasp what happened. "The Eastland Disaster" is primarily a collection of relevant photographs which augment the other two books. Many more photographs of the events surrounding the ship, the sinking and the aftermath. And finally, "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic" is much more technically oriented including the naval architecture concepts concerning the ship itself. I found this book to be especially good as it attempts to provide as much of a balanced view as possible, including several contemporary naval experts analyzing the court testimony of a leading architect of the day. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Not only that, but it is interesting to learn our concern for American jobs being lost to China is not a new thing. Ninety years ago people were worried about the same thing as a result of new regulations coming from the Titanic sinking. All three books solidly contribute to gaining knowledge about the disaster.The Eastland Disaster (Images of America) Overview

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Great Chicago Fire And the Myth of Mrs. O'leary's Cow Review

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Great Chicago Fire And the Myth of Mrs. O'leary's Cow ReviewThis work is simply superb! It is exhaustively researched, well-organized, tightly argued, beautifully illustrated, and entirely convincing. It covers virtually every feature of the fire, the resulting botched investigation, and the era's social contexts. An outstanding model of research, analysis, and writing.Great Chicago Fire And the Myth of Mrs. O'leary's Cow Overview

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Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 Review

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Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 ReviewThere has been a glut of books in recent years detailing historical diasters. Some have been very good, while others have been exploitative attempts to cash in on this particular publishing trend. Fortunately, author Nat Brandt's "Chicago Death Trap" falls squarely into the former catagory. Both well researched and well written, it tells the story of the deadliest fire in U.S. history. The disaster occurred in a brand new, supposedly "fireproof," theather, echoing the way a certain "unsinkable" ocean liner would go down a decade later.
Brandt appropriately tells the story in a straightforward manner. He describes the design and construction of the theather, introduces the major players in the tragedy and then recounts the disaster in an appropriately somber tone. Particularly gruesome is the account of the many who died after being forced to jump from the upper level of the theater, their bodies horribly filling an adjascent alleyway as helpless rescuers looked on.
Brandt also describes the aftermath of the fire, which saw an increase safety laws and an attempt to hold some of the theater officials responsible. Typically for the age, they ultimately managed to avoid formal punishment for the negligence that led to the disaster. The book is a fairly quick read at less than 150 pages of text, and there are a number of illustrations and pictures included to help the reader.
Overall, a decent historical account of an unfortunately preventable tragedy.Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 Overview

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