Chicago's Great Fire
The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City
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Chicago's Great Fire
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Narrated by:
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David de Vries
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By:
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Carl Smith
About this listen
From an acclaimed historian, the full and authoritative story of one of the most iconic disasters in American history, told through the vivid memories of those who experienced it.
Between October 8-10, 1871, much of the city of Chicago was destroyed by one of the most legendary urban fires in history. Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago had grown at a breathtaking pace in barely three decades, from just over 4,000 in 1840 to greater than 330,000 at the time of the fire. Built hastily, the city was largely made of wood. Once it began in the barn of Catherine and Patrick O’Leary, the fire quickly grew out of control, twice jumping branches of the Chicago River on its relentless northeastward path through the city’s three divisions. Close to one of every three Chicago residents was left homeless and more were instantly unemployed, though the death toll was miraculously low.
Remarkably, no carefully researched popular history of the Great Chicago Fire has been written until now, despite it being one of the most cataclysmic disasters in US history. Building the story around memorable characters, both known to history and unknown, including the likes of General Philip Sheridan and Robert Todd Lincoln, eminent Chicago historian Carl Smith chronicles the city’s rapid growth and place in America’s post-Civil War expansion.
The dramatic story of the fire - revealing human nature in all its guises - became one of equally remarkable renewal, as Chicago quickly rose back up from the ashes thanks to local determination and the world’s generosity and faith in Chicago’s future.
As we approach the fire’s 150th anniversary, Carl Smith’s compelling narrative at last gives this epic event its full and proper place in our national chronicle.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Carl Smith (P)2020 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900. Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A STORY THAT TRIES TOO HARD....AND FAILS
- By The Louligan on 02-01-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
Five Points
- The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum
- By: Tyler Anbinder
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
All but forgotten today, Five Points was once renowned the world over. Its handful of streets in lower Manhattan featured America's most wretched poverty, shared by Irish, Jewish, German, Italian, Chinese, and African Americans. It was the scene of more riots, scams, saloons, brothels, and drunkenness than any other neighborhood in the new world. The story that Anbinder tells is the classic tale of America's immigrant past, as successive waves of new arrivals fought for survival in a land that was as exciting as it was dangerous, as riotous as it was culturally rich.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great historical piece
- By Jim Braunstein on 08-19-19
By: Tyler Anbinder
-
The White Devil's Daughters
- The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown
- By: Julia Flynn Siler
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
During the first hundred years of Chinese immigration - from 1848 to 1943 - San Francisco was home to a shockingly extensive underground slave trade in Asian women, who were exploited as prostitutes and indentured servants. In this gripping, necessary book, best-selling author Julia Flynn Siler shines a light on this little-known chapter in our history - and gives us a vivid portrait of the safe house to which enslaved women escaped.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Well researched
- By Qats reads on 08-05-19
-
Washed Away
- How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
- By: Geoff Williams
- Narrated by: Jim Vann
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 52
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
The incredible story of a flood of near-Biblical proportions - its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America’s natural-disaster policies for the next century. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It was the nation’s most widespread flood ever - more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love these historical narratives
- By Kim Hamacher on 07-28-15
By: Geoff Williams
-
Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 270
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
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Broadway
- A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles
- By: Fran Leadon
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey that traces the gradual evolution of the 17th century's Brede Wegh, a muddy cow path in a backwater Dutch settlement, to the 20th century's Great White Way. We learn why one side of the street was once considered more fashionable than the other; witness construction of the Ansonia Apartments, Trinity Church, and the Flatiron Building and the burning of P. T. Barnum's American Museum; and discover that Columbia University was built on the site of an insane asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Give My Regards To Broadway!
- By Steven on 08-20-18
By: Fran Leadon
-
Floodpath
- The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
- By: Jon Wilkman
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 53
Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind LA noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible story
- By C. Jackson on 04-07-21
By: Jon Wilkman
-
Empire of Mud
- The Secret History of Washington, DC
- By: J. D. Dickey
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
Washington, DC, gleams with stately columns and neoclassical temples, a pulsing hub of political power and prowess. But for decades it was one of the worst excuses for a capital city the world had ever seen. Empire of Mud unearths and untangles the roots of our capital’s story and explores how the city was tainted from the outset, nearly stifled from becoming the proud citadel of the republic that George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant envisioned more than two centuries ago.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I thought
- By William Elliott on 09-30-20
By: J. D. Dickey
-
Lincoln on the Verge
- Thirteen Days to Washington
- By: Ted Widmer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Ted Widmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 708
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 618
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 616
As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration - an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent by any means necessary. Drawing on new research, this account reveals the president-elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, foiling an assassination attempt, and forging an unbreakable bond with the American people.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A perfect listen for our divided times.
- By Jonathan W White on 12-06-20
By: Ted Widmer
-
Tulsa 1921
- Reporting a Massacre
- By: Randy Krehbiel
- Narrated by: Kevin Meyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
In 1921, Tulsa’s Greenwood District - known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street” - was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps, as many as 300 people were dead.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Exceptional and
- By Heath on 03-07-20
By: Randy Krehbiel
-
Conquering Gotham
- The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels
- By: Jill Jonnes
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 166
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 97
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
The demolition of Penn Station in 1963 destroyed not just a soaring neoclassical edifice, but also a building that commemorated one of the last century's great engineering feats: the construction of railroad tunnels into New York City. Now, in this gripping narrative, Jill Jonnes tells this fascinating story - a high-stakes drama that pitted the money and will of the nation's mightiest railroad against the corruption of Tammany Hall, the unruly forces of nature, and the machinations of labor agitators.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A good tale of the times
- By Edouard on 02-08-08
By: Jill Jonnes
-
City of Dreams
- The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York
- By: Tyler Anbinder
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 24 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Tyler Anbinder's story is one of innovators and artists, revolutionaries and rioters, staggering deprivation and soaring triumphs, all playing out against the powerful backdrop of New York City, at once ever changing and profoundly, permanently itself. City of Dreams provides a vivid sense of what New York looked like, sounded like, smelled like, and felt like over the centuries of its development and maturation into the city we know today.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Even as a history, not engaging
- By Patrick Kelly on 12-03-16
By: Tyler Anbinder
-
The Race Underground
- Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
- By: Doug Most
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 155
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 137
In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew larger, the streets became increasingly clogged with horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 brought New York City to a halt, a solution had to be found. Two brothers - Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City - pursued the dream of his city being the first American metropolis to have a subway and the great race was on.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Informative Cobbled Telling of an Important Story
- By Lynn on 05-21-14
By: Doug Most
-
London in the Nineteenth Century
- By: Jerry White
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 47
Jerry White's London in the Nineteenth Century is the richest and most absorbing account of the city's greatest century by its leading expert. London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. This was the London of Blake, Thackeray and Mayhew, of Nash, Faraday and Disraeli. Most of all it was the London of Dickens. As William Blake put it, London was 'a Human awful wonder of God'.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
SO DETAILED..SO VERY VERY DETAILED.
- By Count B on 06-16-19
By: Jerry White
-
Triangle
- The Fire That Changed America
- By: David Von Drehle
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 229
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 202
On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village. Within minutes it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders simply weren't tall enough. People on the street watched in horror as desperate workers jumped to their deaths. It was the worst disaster in New York City history.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting but Loong
- By JAS on 04-21-18
By: David Von Drehle
-
American-Made
- The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
- By: Nick Taylor
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, a staggering 13 million American workers were jobless and many millions more of their family members were equally in need. Desperation ruled the land. In 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The true spirit of America.
- By Helen on 07-01-08
By: Nick Taylor
-
Harlem
- The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America
- By: Jonathan Gill
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Harlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of black America, Harlem's 20th-century renaissance changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents the first complete chronicle of this remarkable place.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Interesting.
- By Joyce Mirowski on 06-05-20
By: Jonathan Gill
-
Panama Fever
- By: Matthew Parker
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, William Dufris
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 49
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the greatest engineering feats in human history. A tale of exploration, conquest, money, politics, and medicine, Panama Fever charts the challenges that marked the long, labyrinthine road to the building of the canal. Drawing on a wealth of new materials and sources, Matthew Parker brings to life the men who recognized the impact a canal would have on global politics and economics.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, marginal narrator
- By CmH - HB, CA on 06-02-08
By: Matthew Parker
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Chicago Death Trap
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On the afternoon of December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago's Iroquois Theatre. In the short span of twenty minutes, more than six hundred people were asphyxiated, burned, or trampled to death in a panicked mob's failed attempt to escape. In Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903, Nat Brandt provides a detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess not only the titanic tragedy of the fire itself but also the municipal corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the smoke and ash afterwards.
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Not just about the disaster
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Though today it can seem as if all American culture comes out of New York and Los Angeles, much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to-coast journey included a stop there, and this flow of people and commodities made it America’s central clearinghouse, laboratory, and factory.
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Black Chicago/White Chicago - 1930-1960
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's age of empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and the institutions of representative government - all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the 17th century until the mid-20th. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not Balanced till Conclusion
- By Hectoris on 08-13-20
By: Niall Ferguson
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Crimea
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 515
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 450
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 447
The terrible conflict that dominated the mid-19th century, the Crimean War, killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding History of the Crimean War
- By Rick Sailor on 11-08-18
By: Orlando Figes
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Isaac's Storm
- A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,199
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,034
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,027
At the dawn of the 20th century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Two versions on Audible
- By stephiemav42 on 03-10-21
By: Erik Larson
What listeners say about Chicago's Great Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nick Koch
- 07-19-24
From spark to finish, a good read on the fire
A detailed account of the fire and its aftermath. The narrator did a great job.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mike in NC
- 04-28-23
something's never change. including politicians
this book seems very well researched. the first 3rd of the book is the detail of the fire and it's spread. the second 3rd is the evaluation of the deviation and the huge outpouring of aid from around the world. the final 3rd is the politicians getting involved, accusations of corruption of the massive said sent to help the people who lost everything.
it ends with the reflection by experts, society and historians about what really happened.
the narration is top notch and brings you right to the edge of the fire.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael Thomas
- 07-03-23
Sweat home Catherine
I appreciate the book a person who grew up on the northwest side of Chicago, in an area that was prairie and farmland during the Chicago fire. This is a very good telling of the history and people.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jennett M. Harrell
- 07-24-24
Fairly good
Well-researched collection of anecdotes presented without humor. and interspersed with social editorial from a postmodern perspective.
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