cover image Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America

Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos That Reshaped America

Peter Charles Hoffer, . . Public Affairs, $26 (460pp) ISBN 978-1-58648-355-5

The "best-known conflagration in our nation's history," the 1871 Chicago fire was ignited not by a cow kicking over a lantern but by two laborers having a careless smoke in a barn. The fiasco enriched the moguls who redeveloped the city and disenfranchised the poor, sowing the seeds for a class conflict that would culminate in the 1886 Haymarket riot and the 1894 Pullman strike. According to historian Hoffer (Past Imperfect ), the Chicago fire and six others are "critical moments in our urban development." The 1760 Boston fire helped spark the American Revolution, and firefighters became Sons of Liberty led by such fire wardens as Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The wreckage of Baltimore's 1904 blaze catalyzed the growth of the Inner Harbor, and Pittsburgh romanticized its 1845 fire to attract new investment capital, while the 1967 Detroit arson fires led to white flight and a blighted inner city. Hoffer fears that the present debate over the replacement for the World Trade Center sidesteps fire safety, and that new Oakland residents, after a 1991 firestorm, are complacently building multistory mansions surrounded by trees. Although cogent and thoughtful, this specialized study will appeal mainly to fire buffs and urban planners. B&w photos, maps. (May 1)