Edward P. Kohn

I love a good American history book. I also love a good disaster book. This informative look at New York City's legendary heatwave of August, 1896 is both.

The author provides interesting insights into the difficulties tenement house dwellers faced during the heatwave and their solutions, but also how those solutions could further imperil them. He also talks about the steps the city took, often at the urging of Theodore Roosevelt, but too late, to try to minimize the suffering, such as hosing down streets and giving ice away to the poor.

Beyond the heatwave, however, the focus is on 1896 Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryant, and how his planned major address at New York's Madison Square Garden coincided perfectly, to Bryant's misfortune, with the height of the heatwave. Also of interest was Bryant's exhausting whistlestop train tour on the way to New York City. (In contrast, Republican presidential candidate William McKinley campaigned from his front porch in Ohio.)

There was also some discussion about the role the heatwave played in Roosevelt's political ambitions. I think the book would've benefitted from more information on this score.

Overall, though, a fascinating look at both a slow-motion 19th century weather calamity that killed many, as well as a political campaign that has some parallels to the present day.… (meer)

I was disappointed in this book because I was hoping it would be about the heat wave of 1896 and mix in stories of Theodore Roosevelt. Instead I felt the primary focus of the book was the political career of William Jennings Bryan and the heat wave and Roosevelt were side stories. It is fine to have a book about Bryan, but maybe it should have been titled something different to indicate that. I wish the book would have been solely about the heat wave because the Bryan story sometimes took it off in too many directions.

The parts about the heat wave were very interesting because it is not unusual for us to have heat waves in the upper 90's in present day, but this heat wave was so deadly because of the living and sanitary conditions lower-income people lived in at the time. I thought the information about the clean up, burial, and hospitals was impressive because they had to quickly learn how to deal with a sudden natural disaster.… (meer)

This is a fascinating and well-written account of the deadly summer heat wave of 1896 in NYC. The heatwave had devasating effects on the working and non-working poor. I was a bit disappointed in the book because it tended to focus less on the making of Teddy Roosevelt who was Police Commissioner in NY at the time and more on the democratic presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan whowas campaigning through NYC that fateful summer. I had hoped for somenew tidbit on TR. Nevertheless I was impressed with TRs valiant struggle to get ice to the people of the boroughs. I would have been interested in reading more about the backroom deals that had to be made in order to keep the ice coming to the people.… (meer)