Hot time in the old town The great heat wave of 1896 and the making of Theodore Roosevelt

Kohn (Bilkent Univ., Turkey) examines an often-overlooked natural disaster, New York City's deadly heat wave of August 1896. For 10 days, heat indices rose above 120 degrees, resulting in over 1,300 deaths. Poor immigrants living in substandard, unsanitary tenements suffered the brunt of the causalities. Using the heat wave as a backdrop, Kohn provides excellent insight into Theodore Roosevelt's time as NYC's police commissioner and the beginnings of his Progressive ideas. Roosevelt took unprecedented steps to alleviate the suffering of the city's poor, including providing free ice and transporting the sick to hospitals. The tragedy helped inspire Roosevelt to push for greater social responsibility, such as tenement reform. Kohn also contends the heat wave played a significant role in the failure of William Jennings Bryan's presidential bid. During his acceptance speech at Madison Square Garden, the oppressive heat caused many spectators to abandon the venue. Bryan's speech was poorly received, giving his campaign a lackluster start. The direct link between the heat wave and the failure of the Bryan campaign is weak, but Kohn provides an excellent narrative of the human toll from this deadly heat wave and Roosevelt's time as a city official. Summing Up: Recommended. General, public, and undergraduate libraries. C. A. Sproles University of Louisville

Writing about a torrid August 1896 in New York City, historian Kohn recounts the political backdrop to a disaster that eventually took about 1,300 lives. Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan arrives to deliver a speech he hopes will unify a party split on the issue of minting silver, while Theodore Roosevelt, then a city police commissioner, ingratiates himself with Republican Party power brokers. The populace of the metropolis, meanwhile, goes about its business. As temperatures rise into triple digits for an eventual 10-day heat wave, Kohn narrates its effects on pavement and buildings, especially Manhattan's squalid tenements, with supplementary information about the strain excessive heat places on the human body. Depicting the spike in mortality and a toll of horses and dogs dead in the streets, Kohn switches from Bryan's rally on a suffocating night to Roosevelt's multitude of activities in the election campaign and the unfolding civic crisis. Arguing that the patrician Roosevelt's interactions with the other half reinforced his reformist bent, Kohn provides an able historical illustration of contingency's unexpected influence on political events.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist

For 10 hellishly hot days in August 1896, the poorly ventilated tenement blocks of immigrant New York were transformed into massive ovens: horses dropped dead in the streets and nearly 1,300 people perished. That same week, William Jennings Bryan, a promising prairie populist from Nebraska and the Democratic Party's choice for president, launched his opposition to William McKinley and set out on a cross-country campaign tour, and a police commissioner named Theodore Roosevelt hosed down the streets, desperately trying to bring down the temperatures. Kohn (The Kindred People), professor of American studies and literature at Bilkent University in Turkey, splices these stories together, but the union feels forced, and any correlation of Bryan's downfall (a clumsy, momentum-killing speech at Madison Square Garden) with the heat wave is tenuous. "It is in the nature of heat waves to kill slowly," writes Kohn, "with no physical manifestation, no property damage, and no single catastrophic event that markets them as a disaster." He succeeds in bringing this little-known tragedy to light, but it is weakened rather than strengthened by the addition of an election narrative. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A rare and terrible weather phenomenon that struck New York City in 1896 becomes the backdrop here for dramatic social and political events unfolding at this pivotal time. Kohn (American culture & literature, Bilkent Univ., Turkey; This Kindred People) impressively documents the historic heat wave that killed some 1300 New Yorkers. The presidential campaign of the same year plays a part here. Democrat William Jennings Bryan, normally an eloquent speaker, delivered his famous all-too-lengthy New York stump speech during the heat wave; it proved such a resounding failure that it arguably contributed to his loss to Republican William McKinley. But Kohn's story is not without its heroes. Kohn highlights Theodore Roosevelt, then New York's police commissioner, and his concern for the poorest citizens during the lethal heat. VERDICT Although the 1896 heat wave remains a minor footnote in New York history, Kohn creates a solid narrative that makes for absorbing reading. He also points out that notwithstanding huge progress made to improve responses to heat crises, these occurrences continue to claim many lives to this day. Students of historical meteorology and shows like When Weather Changed History will enjoy this, as will anyone interested in off-beat American history.-Richard Drezen, Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

How a brutal 1896 heat wave may have helped bring about an era of progressive politics.During ten days in August 1896, New York City experienced unprecedented temperatures combined with extremely high humidity. In this solid history, Kohn (American Culture and Literature/Bilkent Univ.; This Kindred People, 2005) makes good use of vivid details. Hundreds of horses collapsed and expired in the streets, their corpses festering in the sun for days as the municipal infrastructure was overwhelmed. Dogs went mad and were shot. People all over the city suffered from dehydration and heat prostration. Nearly 1,500 died, and, the author writes, a disproportionate number of the victims were poor. Living and working conditions for New York's lower classes were horrific. Those lucky enough to have jobs often worked extremely long hours, had inadequate food and medical care and lived in unsanitary rooming houses in which the indoor temperatures reached unbearable levels. Municipal officialsincluding Theodore Roosevelt, then president of the city's Board of Police Commissionerswere simply unprepared to help these unfortunates, who had long been ignored by their government. The crisis even affected presidential politics. William Jennings Bryan, the colorful Democratic candidate, visited the city that week and was so adversely affected by the heat that his campaign speech bombed. Republican William McKinley would later win the election, and Roosevelt would ascend to the presidency in 1901 after McKinley's assassination. Roosevelt was deeply affected by the human suffering he observed during the heat wave, Kohn writes, speculating that it may have informed his progressive policies as president. The author paints an impressively multifaceted portrait of Gilded Age New York, and while the narrative occasionally dwells too long on national politics, the sections that deal directly with the plight of the working poor are riveting.Vivid history of a forgotten urban crisis.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.