Foto dell'autore
17+ opere 612 membri 14 recensioni

Sull'Autore

William Lutz is a professor of English at Rutgers University, Camden. They live in Philadelphia.

Comprende i nomi: Lutz William, William D. Lutz

Opere di William Lutz

Opere correlate

The State of the Language [1990] (1979) — Collaboratore — 88 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome legale
Lutz, William Dennis
Data di nascita
1940-12-12
Sesso
male
Luogo di nascita
Racine, Wisconsin, USA
Attività lavorative
linguist
university professor emeritus
Organizzazioni
Rutgers University, Camden

Utenti

Recensioni

 
Segnalato
vorefamily | Feb 22, 2024 |
A little slow taking off, but gets better after Chapter 8 when the fire begins. The author does a pretty good job describing a play by play of what people were doing the minute up to the fire when they realized they had to run. The stories were collected from a variety of sources, which are all listed in the “Notes” section at the back of the book for further reading if interested. There are photos of a few of the survivors and town officials who played a huge part in the recovery efforts.

This fire was part of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which was the main headlines in all the newspapers. It destroyed “America’s” town and killed around 300 people. Chicago boasted that this was the greatest fire in history; therefore, they received the majority of the news coverage.

But, the greater hell was in Peshtigo and the surrounding towns in Wisconsin where thousands of people lost their lives, survivors witnessed their loved ones, friends and neighbors burned alive in an instant. And those who made it to the river, burned and drowned in the river. Those who walked out of the river were badly burned. Of Peshtigo's 2000 residents, approximately 1,800 of them died on that day. All their stories are collected in these pages. Plus, more people died in the surrounding towns. The exact number of people who died will never be known. Charred remains were found even a few years after the fire. There was no official count ever taken.

It was always snowing ashes from the fires all around. The people were somewhat accustomed to this kind of atmosphere. In 1871, new arrivals were constantly clearing their land and burning the timber. This created a constant haze of smoke polluted air. Citizens walked around with hankies over their noses and mouths. They were constantly fighting off small fires that ignited here and there and were only a little more concerned when the snow of ash became so heavy, one couldn’t see their neighbors face. This was the norm for the lumber mill town of Peshtigo.

What they couldn’t see was the sleeping giant burning between Chicago and Michigan. When the low pressure from Galveston and the cold front from Canada merged over Lake Michigan area, it turned all the clearing fires and other surrounding raging fires into one great firestorm, much like an atomic bomb, with temperatures reaching up to at least 1800 degrees and fire tornadoes with speeds up to 100 mph.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
MissysBookshelf | 9 altre recensioni | Aug 27, 2023 |
This book is an overview of the Dutch islands of the Caribbean, and includes one chapter about St. Martin, "Sint Maarten: Modern Vacation Paradise." It provides the kind of summary one might expect in 7 short pages written by an outsider.
 
Segnalato
soualibra | Sep 22, 2020 |
I had never heard of Peshtigo, Wisconsin before reading this book, and now I will never forget it or its people. A friend lent me this book as we struggled to come to grips with the 3rd huge fire in less than 2 years to ravage California; and two of those fires had burned homes of my extended family.
In 1871 the Peshtigo fire destroyed the town, farms, forests, and parts of Chicago, even burning towns into Canada. But what most people remember is only the Chicago Fire. The loss of life was immeasurable; some accounts were over 2500 men, women and children perished. The survivors not only dealt with recovering from horrific burns, they also had nothing to come back to having lost members of their families and their homes. The town of Peshtigo was built around a farming community whose main industry was lumber, and the forests were plentiful—huge trees, by lakes, rivers to move the logs. Railroads being built, telegraph lines, new roads being cleared; but the push for rapid expansion left waste like sawdust, and timber piles in a town where everything was made out of wood, even the sidewalks. This created hazards, which were helped by a long drought and extreme weather conditions that ignited a devastating firestorm. So many things contributed to the fire, but only a few saw the danger, and those few had only small pieces of the bigger picture. It is good that we have their accounts, because a lot of what we know now about fires, weather, and fire science came from those few people. Unfortunately we are still making mistakes when it comes to helping people recover after these types of disasters. The authors did a magnificent job telling this part of America’s history, it is well researched and the writing isn’t boring or cumbersome: I was pulled in and touched emotionally, so I’m strongly recommending it with a little caution because there are some graphic accounts about the people and animals in the fire. 4 stars… (altro)
 
Segnalato
PamelaBarrett | 9 altre recensioni | May 4, 2018 |

Liste

Potrebbero anche piacerti

Autori correlati

Harry Brent Contributor
Charles Suhor Contributor
Dennis Rohatyn Contributor
George R. Bramer Contributor
Hugh Rank Contributor
Richard Ohmann Contributor
Don L. F. Nilsen Contributor
D. G. Kehl Contributor
Julia Penelope Contributor
Donald Lazere Contributor
Dan F. Hahn Contributor
Walker Gibson Contributor
Roy F. Fox Contributor
Edward M. White Contributor
Frank J. D'Angelo Contributor
Scott Buechler Contributor

Statistiche

Opere
17
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
612
Popolarità
#41,086
Voto
3.8
Recensioni
14
ISBN
32

Grafici & Tabelle