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

by Kohn, Edward P

• ISBN13: 9780465024285
• ISBN10: 0465024289
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-12
• Publisher: Basic Books
• More Book Details
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Summary

One of the worst natural disasters in American history, the 1896 New York City heat wave killed almost 1,500 people in ten oppressively hot days. The heat coincided with a pitched presidential contest between William McKinley and upstart Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who arrived in New York at the height of the catastrophe. Showing how Bryan's hopes for the presidency began to flag just as a bright, young police commissioner named Theodore Roosevelt was scrambling to aid the city's poor, Hot Time in the Old Townvividly captures both the birth of the Progressive Era and one of New York's greatest--yet least-remembered--tragedies.

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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