Great Chicago Fire | Out of the Ashes | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After the 1871 fire destroyed a third of their city, Chicagoans wanted to do more than rebuild. They wanted to envision a new kind of American city. That included everything from changes to fire codes and labor laws to an entirely new style of architecture -- the skyscraper.

Professor Ann Keating is an urban historian and expert on Chicago history both before and after the Great Fire. She and Lindsay discuss the rapid growth and social changes that made Chicago so vulnerable, what lessons city leaders learned -- or failed to learn -- in the fire’s aftermath, and the parallels between the Great Chicago Fire and other, more recent urban disasters.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine us November 1903 in Chicago.
0:21.5	You're a captain in the Chicago Fire Department, and today you're performing a routine inspection
0:26.0	of the brand new Iroquois Theater, which is set to open its doors to the public in just
0:30.5	a few days.
0:31.8	Their in-house fire warden, an old colleague of yours, is giving you the tour.
0:36.7	He leads you up a flight of stairs from a backstage entrance.
0:39.5	Well, Bill, looks like you've got yourself a fine gig here.
0:42.5	I remind you how long it's been since you retired from the Force.
0:46.5	Ten years if you can believe it.
0:48.2	And honestly, the call couldn't have come at a better time.
0:50.2	You know, Alice is sick.
0:52.0	Has been for months.
0:53.0	We need the money more than ever.
0:54.3	That hey, they're lucky to have you, a veteran fireman such as yourself.
0:58.2	I've seen the billboards.
0:59.2	They're saying this place is absolutely fireproof.
1:02.2	Guessing that's all down to you.
1:04.2	Bill scratches his ear and looks away.
1:06.4	Oh, you saw those, did you?
1:08.2	Well, here's the main auditorium.
	...

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