Great Chicago Fire: American Stories

On October 10, 1871, Chicagoans awoke to an unrecognizable landscape. Forty-eight hours earlier, there had been a vibrant city of ornate civic buildings, grand hotels, and cultural institutions. Now, there was nothing but a smoking pile of rubble stretching for miles on end. Many wondered: could the city recover? And how did tensions between the city’s elite and the immigrant poor lead to the wrong person being accused of starting the blaze? The Great Chicago Fire: American Stories tells the dramatic story of a defining moment in Chicago history – "the Great Fire of 1871," when the city faced destruction, rebuilt, and laid the groundwork for a thriving future.