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  • Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by William Lutz book cover
  • Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by William Lutz book cover
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Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History

by William Lutz

Peshtigo’s firestorm in its historical setting

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Peshtigo’s firestorm in its historical setting

On the night the Great Chicago Fire began, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, faced a disaster that destroyed the lumber town and killed more than two thousand people. Denise Gess and William Lutz place the fire within the human and political circumstances surrounding it, bringing together figures including a priest, a lumber baron, newsmen, and a meteorologist. The account connects the scale of the catastrophe—described as sweeping across more than 2,400 square miles—with the local people and conflicts tied to its history. The book’s focus on Peshtigo alongside Chicago also gives readers a way to consider why this devastating event became less prominent in American historical memory.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in U.S. history and overlooked historical events
  • Readers seeking accounts of natural disasters and their human consequences
  • Readers interested in the people and politics surrounding the Peshtigo fire

Themes

Natural disasterCommunity and lossPolitical conflictHistorical memory

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Novelist Denise Gess and historian William Lutz brilliantly restore the event to its rightful place in the forefront of American historical imagination."
--Chicago Sun-Times

On October 8, 1871--the same night as the Great Chicago Fire--the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was struck with a five-mile-wide wall of flames, borne on tornado-force winds of one hundred miles per hour that tore across more than 2,400 square miles of land, obliterating the town in less than one hour and killing more than two thousand people.

At the center of the blowout were politically driven newsmen Luther Noyes and Franklin Tilton, money-seeking lumber baron Isaac Stephenson, parish priest Father Peter Pernin, and meteorologist Increase Lapham. In Firestorm at Peshtigo, Denise Gess and William Lutz vividly re-create the personal and political battles leading to this monumental natural disaster, and deliver it from the lost annals of American history.

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