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Rating: 
Summary: How and Why A Disaster Happened
Review: In an age when government wants to regulate nearly every aspect of our lives, it seems incredible that the Iroquois Theater disaster could have even happend. So that the reader may understand the how and why of it, author Hatch has provided us with fine introductory chapters concerning the theater business of the day and how it operated, the political realities of Chicago (and elsewhere)at the time, the physical aspects of how fires were fought, and how the combination brought about this disaster. Without this information, the book would be far less informing than it is. With it, it becomes a fascinating, horrific look at a disaster that didn't need to happen.
This book is excellent reading and reminds us all that we forget the lessons of the Iroquois Theater at our peril.
Rating:
Summary: How and Why A Disaster Happened
Review: In an age when government wants to regulate nearly every aspect of our lives, it seems incredible that the Iroquois Theater disaster could have even happend. So that the reader may understand the how and why of it, author Hatch has provided us with fine introductory chapters concerning the theater business of the day and how it operated, the political realities of Chicago (and elsewhere)at the time, the physical aspects of how fires were fought, and how the combination brought about this disaster. Without this information, the book would be far less informing than it is. With it, it becomes a fascinating, horrific look at a disaster that didn't need to happen.
This book is excellent reading and reminds us all that we forget the lessons of the Iroquois Theater at our peril.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow moving
Review: Mr. Hatch has written a taunt true story of grim reality. Like the Titanic, The Hidenberg, The Coconut Grove and other assorted and avoidable human disasters, the reader knows the ending before opening the book. But like all good reporters - and Mr. Hatch is first, last and always a well seasoned newsman - it is how he stacks the facts that counts. In Tinder Box it is not 'what' happens, as much as 'how' and 'why,' and finally, sadly, who pays the price. In today's era of litigation, much is made of the lawyer-sharks; but before their arrival, the victims of these man-made tragedies were like guppies swimming with piranhas. Only the victims paid. Mr. Hatch is never brutal, but neither does he turn aside from the grim facets of those ghastly events of that day in in late 1903,when 600 victims, many of them women and children, burned to death in an "absolutely fireproof" building. It is a great read, fast paced and gripping.
Rating: 
Summary: You Can Feel the Heat and Sorrow Between the Covers
Review: Mr. Hatch has written a taunt true story of grim reality. Like the Titanic, The Hidenberg, The Coconut Grove and other assorted and avoidable human disasters, the reader knows the ending before opening the book. But like all good reporters - and Mr. Hatch is first, last and always a well seasoned newsman - it is how he stacks the facts that counts. In Tinder Box it is not 'what' happens, as much as 'how' and 'why,' and finally, sadly, who pays the price. In today's era of litigation, much is made of the lawyer-sharks; but before their arrival, the victims of these man-made tragedies were like guppies swimming with piranhas. Only the victims paid. Mr. Hatch is never brutal, but neither does he turn aside from the grim facets of those ghastly events of that day in in late 1903,when 600 victims, many of them women and children, burned to death in an "absolutely fireproof" building. It is a great read, fast paced and gripping.
Rating:
Summary: Slow moving
Review: This book takes eight chapters to get into the fire
itself. It has a large amount of information about the
Theater Trust organization that is not necessary to the
story.
Rating:
Summary: Human Drama
Review: With extraordinary thoroughness and an obvious love of his subject, Anthony Hatch makes vivid the story of Chicago's Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903. With eerie parallels to the Titanic disaster, the Iroquois' programs boasted that the theater was "Absolutely Fireproof"-- but everyone involved seemed to think somebody else had done whatever was necessary to make that claim a reality. The most deadly theater fire in U.S. history, the event is heartbreaking to read about, but Hatch has ferreted out the many human stories of the victims, survivors, reporters, firefighters, theater managers, and politicians who were involved, and found heroes as well as villains in this tragedy. In spite of the lessons learned and laws changed as a result of this terrible loss, Hatch's research shows that many modern theaters repeat some of the careless mistakes of the Iroquois. Everyone who frequents public buildings would be well-advised to read this fascinating story and take its lessons to heart.
Rating:
Summary: Human Drama
Review: With extraordinary thoroughness and an obvious love of his subject, Anthony Hatch makes vivid the story of Chicago's Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903. With eerie parallels to the Titanic disaster, the Iroquois' programs boasted that the theater was "Absolutely Fireproof"-- but everyone involved seemed to think somebody else had done whatever was necessary to make that claim a reality. The most deadly theater fire in U.S. history, the event is heartbreaking to read about, but Hatch has ferreted out the many human stories of the victims, survivors, reporters, firefighters, theater managers, and politicians who were involved, and found heroes as well as villains in this tragedy. In spite of the lessons learned and laws changed as a result of this terrible loss, Hatch's research shows that many modern theaters repeat some of the careless mistakes of the Iroquois. Everyone who frequents public buildings would be well-advised to read this fascinating story and take its lessons to heart.
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