Rating: 
Summary: an overlooked epic disaster
Review: A confluence of events occured on October 8,1871, in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, producing a catastrophe of epic proportions. Since the great Chicago fire occured the same day, the Peshtigo conflagration has been overlooked in American history, until now. Gess and Lutz, co-authors of "Firestorm at Peshtigo", have produced a graphic account drawn from survivors. The fire, fueled by dry conditions from a long drought and whipped into tremendous intensity by tornado-like winds, "moved faster than the time it takes to write these words." The town was gone in less than an hour, reduced to ashes, with widespread, nearly instantaneous loss of life. This tale is not for the faint-hearted as Gess and Lutz pull no punches in describing the scenes of devastation. Since earlier fires had destroyed telegraph lines from the remote mining town, the rest of the nation learned little of the fate of Peshtigo, and the disaster there was overshadowed by the Chicago fire of the same date (and the boosterism and rebuilding of its aftermath). Gess and Lutz have restored a page of midwestern history in this engrossing book. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Come-to-life cataclysm told with passion and exitment.
Review: An extrodinarily well written piece of history where characters and relevent facts are developed with masterful style. Science, events, the lives of hopeful people and geographical factors converge in an orchestral crescendo on October 8, 1871.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding! Chilling! Heartbreaking! Necessary.
Review: Exhuming and stitching together the facts and accounts needed to describe this previously overshadowed, if not obliterated event in American history is a valuable feat outdone only by the richness of the storytelling. The obviously zealous research allows the stage to be set with the economic, political and social development of the region. Characters are portrayed early on in such a way that their reappearance during and after the catastrophe makes them fervently real. With lines, "Loggers, who had seen men crushed by falling tree limbs and rolling logs, who had seen men rip an opponent's eye our in a fight, fell the ground and wept, unable to pick up one more child", it is clear Ms. Gess was impassioned with this projects humanity as well as it's science and the brilliance of men like Increase Lapham. No kidding, this is ripe for the big screen. The way in which the preconditions existed, such as the weather in Texas and factors in Minnesota, etc. all converging. Wow! Better than the "Perfect Storm" drama.
Rating:
Summary: Firestorm
Review: Firestorm at Peshtigo is exciting story-telling at its very best. This is a gripping one-sitting read as you share the lives of the great variety of souls who perish or survive the firestorm that has a malignant life and death of its own. Gess and Lutz breathe new life, fresh science, and white-knuckle excitement into an event that was a raging hell to begin with.
Rating: 
Summary: check the numbers !
Review: Firestorm at Peshtigo, by novelist Denise Gess, and Professor William Lutz, purportedly "tells the human, political, and scientific story behind America's deadliest fire." The book is an interesting and seemingly well-documented read about a natural disaster otherwise little known except to forest historians. However, it contains some very non-scientific information about forestry. In the Notes for Chapter 1, they use "an average of approximately 640 trees in a square(sic) acre" to conclude the Peshtigo forest as being "far denser than any forest in the U.S. today", and that "the estimate of 1 billion trees destroyed is no exaggeration". Then a photograph facing page 141 of, apparently, a multi-stem clump of hardwood (elm?) stumps in a cementary, "reveals the size of the 1 billion trees destroyed", which are generally described as virgin white pines. These statements are not factually supportable and could have been easily vetted by a number of the cited bibliographic sources.
Rating:
Summary: Fire in the woods
Review: Galveston, Johnstown, and Peshtigo rank as the greatest 'natural' disasters in American history. Excellent books on the first two tragedies are now joined by another great study of the third. Galveston suffered from a hurricane over one hundred years ago, perhaps 8,000 people died. The dam bursting in Johnston even earlier killed over 2,000 people in western Pennsylvania. The terrible fire that howled through northeastern Wisconsin on October 8, 1871 killed over 1,000 people and, by some estimates, killed more than the flood in Pennsylvania. Gess and Lutz provide good background to the tragedy. This area of Wisconsin was booming due to the strong demand for lumber and the massive forests that covered the northern half of the state. Times were pretty good and getting better until the summer of 1871, when the lack of rain foretold a horrific fall. In hindsight, the inevitable, terrible combination of wood and fire may have been foreseeable. But not likely preventable. Fire is an especially nasty force. Combined with extremes in the weather - low pressure, high winds, low humidity, lightning and a tornado - this was an especially pernicious threat and the cause of rapid, terrible death for hundreds and hundreds of poor, unsuspecting, fleeing people, some of them very recent immigrants. The date of the event, its relatively rural location and the somewhat primitive communication and media of the time makes a complete understanding of the tragedy difficult yet Gess and Lutz work hard and admirably to dig up and re-construct weather reports, personal accounts, old newspapers, and other primary sources of information. There are fifteen pages of detailed and highly readable footnotes and scores of source documents cited. There is always a tone of overwhelming sadness to such tales. Peshtigo is no exception. But it is fascinating history and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fire in the woods
Review: Galveston, Johnstown, and Peshtigo rank as the greatest `natural' disasters in American history. Excellent books on the first two tragedies are now joined by another great study of the third. Galveston suffered from a hurricane over one hundred years ago, perhaps 8,000 people died. The dam bursting in Johnston even earlier killed over 2,000 people in western Pennsylvania. The terrible fire that howled through northeastern Wisconsin on October 8, 1871 killed over 1,000 people and, by some estimates, killed more than the flood in Pennsylvania. Gess and Lutz provide good background to the tragedy. This area of Wisconsin was booming due to the strong demand for lumber and the massive forests that covered the northern half of the state. Times were pretty good and getting better until the summer of 1871, when the lack of rain foretold a horrific fall. In hindsight, the inevitable, terrible combination of wood and fire may have been foreseeable. But not likely preventable. Fire is an especially nasty force. Combined with extremes in the weather - low pressure, high winds, low humidity, lightning and a tornado - this was an especially pernicious threat and the cause of rapid, terrible death for hundreds and hundreds of poor, unsuspecting, fleeing people, some of them very recent immigrants. The date of the event, its relatively rural location and the somewhat primitive communication and media of the time makes a complete understanding of the tragedy difficult yet Gess and Lutz work hard and admirably to dig up and re-construct weather reports, personal accounts, old newspapers, and other primary sources of information. There are fifteen pages of detailed and highly readable footnotes and scores of source documents cited. There is always a tone of overwhelming sadness to such tales. Peshtigo is no exception. But it is fascinating history and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been a longer book
Review: I expected a book about the firestorm and what happened during that tragedy to the people involved. Instead, I got a history of several wealthy men, some brief information about local inhabitants and a rather quick overview of the fire sweeping through the area. It's an interesting look at Wisconsin, the lumber industry and the slash and burn techniques used (Hey, aren't we yelling at people in South America for doing the same thing?) but I expected more than I got. I also realized when I finished that I still didn't understand very well what happened to create the firestorm. So I reread that section and I still don't understand. I wish they had done more research and written a longer book.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been a longer book
Review: I expected a book about the firestorm and what happened during that tragedy to the people involved. Instead, I got a history of several wealthy men, some brief information about local inhabitants and a rather quick overview of the fire sweeping through the area. It's an interesting look at Wisconsin, the lumber industry and the slash and burn techniques used (Hey, aren't we yelling at people in South America for doing the same thing?) but I expected more than I got. I also realized when I finished that I still didn't understand very well what happened to create the firestorm. So I reread that section and I still don't understand. I wish they had done more research and written a longer book.
Rating:
Summary: Nature Gone Mad
Review: I first read the story of the Peshtigo fire in Vincent Gaddis's fortean classic, "Mysterious Lights & Fires". This only allowed a minute glimpse into this remarkable natural disaster of 1871. The authors have done an excellent job at bringing the personal stories of those that lived and died in the face of mind numbing terror. I only wish they had explored in more detail the meterological and environmental conditons in the region that led to this malestrom of fire. Social history at it best. Recommended.
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