| Hot Time in the Old Town: The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt Contributor(s): Kohn, Edward P. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0465024289 ISBN-13: 9780465024285 Publisher: Basic Books OUR PRICE: $21.77 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 19th Century - History | United States - State & Local - Middle Atlantic (dc, De, Md, Nj, Ny, Pa) - Nature | Natural Disasters |
| Dewey: 974.710 |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 5.6" W x 8.2" (0.70 lbs) 304 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Geographic Orientation - New York - Locality - New York, N.Y. - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: One of the worst natural disasters in American history, the 1896 New York heat wave killed almost 1,500 people in ten oppressively hot days. The heat coincided with a pitched presidential contest between William McKinley and the upstart Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who arrived in New York City at the height of the catastrophe. As historian Edward P. Kohn shows, Bryan's hopes for the presidency began to flag amidst the abhorrent heat just as a bright young police commissioner named Theodore Roosevelt was scrambling to mitigate the dangerously high temperatures by hosing down streets and handing out ice to the poor. A vivid narrative that captures the birth of the progressive era, Hot Time in the Old Town revives the forgotten disaster that almost destroyed a great American city. |