Hot Time in the Old Town : The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt

by Kohn, Edward P.

• ISBN13: 9780465013364
• ISBN10: 0465013368
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780465022588
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-27
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group
• More Book Details
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Summary

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 Townrevives the forgotten disaster that almost destroyed a great American city.

Author Biography

Edward P. Kohn is assistant professor of American History and Chair of the American Culture and Literature Department at Bilkent University. His previous works include This Kindred People. He lives in Ankara, Turkey.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Heated Term	p. ix
Introduction: Fighting for Air	p. 1
Cholera Infantium	p. 33
Slaughter Alley	p. 69
Enemy's Country	p. 95
Inferno of Brick and Stone	p. 127
Bryan Fell with a Bang	p. 155
Strange and Pathetic Scenes	p. 183
Conclusion: A Phenomenon	p. 215
Epilogue: Hot Time in the Old Town	p. 245
Postscript	p. 257
Acknowledgments	p. 259
Death Certificates Filed, August 4-17, 1895 and 1896	p. 261
Who Died: Manhattan, Tuesday, August II	p. 263
Bibliography	p. 269
Index	p. 279
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