The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and Rebuilding The Windy City Into a World Metropolis

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In October of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the “big one”—a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. There hadn’t been a meaningful rain since July, and several big blazes had nearly outstripped the fire department’s scant resources. On October 8, when Kate Leary’s barn caught fire, so began a catastrophe that would forever change the soul of the city.

Leary was a diligent, hardworking Irish woman, no more responsible for the fire than anyone else in the city at that time. But the conflagration that spread from her property quickly overtook the neighborhood, and before too long the floating embers had spread to the far reaches of the city. Families took to the streets with everything they could carry. Grain towers threatened to blow. The Chicago River boiled. Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, Chicago saw the biggest and most destructive disaster the United States had ever endured, and Leary would be its scapegoat.

Out of the ashes rose not just new skyscrapers, tenements, and homes, but also a new political order. The city’s elite saw an opportunity to rebuild on their terms, cracking down on crime and licentiousness and fortifying a business-friendly environment. But the city’s working class recognized a naked power grab that would challenge their traditions, hurt their chances of rebuilding, and move power out of elected officials’ hands and into private interests. As quickly as the firefight ended, another battle for the future of the city began between the town’s business elites and the poor and immigrant working class.

Today’s guest is Scott Berg, author of “The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul.” Beginning with the fire’s origin on the property of Irish immigrant Kate Leary, we explore how a simple barn fire brought Chicago to its knees and ushered in a new political order in which immigrants wrested control of the city from the business class and birthed the machine politics for which the city is known today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:07.0	In October of 1871, Chicago residents knew they were due for the big one,
0:11.5	a massive fire that would decimate the city.
0:14.0	On October 8th, when Kate Leary's barn caught fire, this spread to a citywide blaze
0:18.1	that would forever alter Chicago.
0:20.3	Families took to the streets with everything they can carry, green towers began to blow,
0:23.8	Chicago River boiled, and over the next 48 hours, Chicago saw the biggest most destructive disaster
0:28.8	the US had ever endured.
0:30.5	By the end, Chicago looked like the smoldering ruins of a World War II bombing site.
0:35.0	But out of the ashes rose skyscrapers, tenements, and homes, but also a new political
0:39.6	order where corrupt politics who organized crime met together and this sort of order
0:43.8	dominated 19th and 20th century America. Today's guest is Scott Berg,
0:47.8	author of the burning of the world, the great Chicago Fire and the War for City soul.
0:51.6	We look at how disasters like this were common in the ancient
0:54.5	medieval and early modern worlds and how huge fires like this happens every couple of centuries
0:59.2	and any big city you could think of, how city leaders didn't let a crisis go to waste and whiteboarded exactly what
1:05.0	they wanted the new Chicago to be now huge metropolis is born out of the tension
1:09.2	between elites the working class and everyone in between. Hope we enjoyed this discussion with Scott Burke.
1:17.0	And one more thing before we get started with this episode,
1:19.0	a quick break for word from our sponsors.
1:22.0	This winter, memberships will never be the same again.
1:25.0	Amazon Prime presents Eddie Murphy's new Christmas movie, Candy Kane Lane,
	...

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