The Burning of the World

The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City's Soul

By: Scott W. Berg

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

WINNER OF THE MIDLAND AUTHORS AWARD FOR HISTORY • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE • A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The "illuminating" (New Yorker) story of the Great Chicago Fire: a raging inferno, a harrowing fight for survival, and the struggle for the soul of a city—told with the "the clarity—and tension—of a well-wrought military narrative" (Wall Street Journal)

In the fall of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the “big one”—a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. It had been bone-dry for months, and a recent string of blazes had nearly outstripped the fire department’s already scant resources. Then, on October 8, a minor fire broke out in the barn of Irishwoman Kate Leary. A series of unfortunate mishaps and misunderstandings along with insufficient preparation and a high south-westerly wind combined to set the stage for an unmitigated catastrophe.

The conflagration that spread from the Learys' property quickly overtook the neighborhood, and before long the floating embers had been cast to the far reaches of the city. Nothing to the northeast was safe. Families took to the streets with every possession they could carry. Powerful gusts whipped the flames into a terrifying firestorm. The Chicago River boiled. Over the next forty-eight hours, Chicago fell victim to the largest and most destructive natural disaster the United States had yet endured.

The effects of the Great Fire were devastating. But they were also transforming. Out of the ashes, faster than seemed possible, rose new homes, tenements, hotels, and civic buildings, as well as a new political order. The elite seized the reconstruction to crack down on vice, control the disbursement of vast charitable funds, and rebuild the city in their image. But the city’s working class recognized only a naked power grab that would challenge their traditions, hurt their chances to keep their hard-earned property, and move power out of the hands of elected officials and into private interests. As soon as the battle against the fire ended, another battle for the future of the city erupted between its entrenched business establishment and its poor and immigrant laborers and shopkeepers.

An enrapturing account of the fire’s inexorable march and an eye-opening look at its aftermath, The Burning of the World tells the story of one of the most infamous calamities in history and the new Chicago it precipitated—a disaster that still shapes American cities to this day.

©2023 Scott W. Berg (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A fine book. . . . This was all long ago, and a fire’s track tends to be amorphous. So it is particularly impressive how closely Mr. Berg is able to plot this one’s early progress, which he does with the clarity—and tension—of a well-wrought military narrative. . . . As vivid as Mr. Berg’s depiction of the fire is, his description of its aftermath is fascinating as well.”—The Wall Street Journal

“All that imagery of destruction, retribution, and rebirth could obscure circumstances that were often deeply, grubbily—and fascinatingly—political, as Scott W. Berg shows in his illuminating new book. . . . The Chicago fire turns out to be a rich case study not only in urban history and the sociology of catastrophe but in how people choose to remember their collective past. . . . [Berg offers] some vivid set pieces. I won’t soon forget his description of the doomed effort to put out an edition of the Chicago Tribune when the city was in flames. . . . Like the stickiness of Mrs. Leary’s bad rap, the political ramifications of the fire were both unpredictable and long-lasting. Berg is particularly sharp on this theme.”—The New Yorker

“Propulsive. . . . An engrossing account of one of the greatest catastrophes in American history. . . . Berg’s storytelling is vivid and visceral. . . . Along the way, Berg also explodes long-lived myths. . . . Berg’s eye for detail and character, combined with his skill at creating scenes, make these chapters, too, riveting and absorbing. This topnotch, eye-opening history proves that the Great Fire shaped and reinvented Chicago in myriad ways, and long after the last embers had been extinguished.”—Washington Independent Review of Books

What rose from the ashes

As a native Chicagoan, with a family history going back to the late 1890’s, I found in this book a new understanding of how my city grew and how my “south side” came to be. It showed me the part my family played out in the neighborhood settlements and the city’s unique political arena. My father was born in Chicago in 1918 and his father’s family had been in Chicago for at least two decades before that. The book gave me new insight into what formed my father’s core values as he grew up in what became a single parent household. I am now prompted to read more on Chicago’s history

Great description, okay analysis

Wonderful in describing the fire itself and the politics immediately following it. Becomes too exultant later on when I wanted analysis.