The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America in Reading with Style

Sep 14, 2021 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads, history-and-biography, library, twenty-first-century

I have to limit myself when I go to our Friends of the Library book sales or I'd run out of places to put things. The holdings are pot luck, of course, since they are all donated books, but I allowed myself in July to hope for this very book. I plucked it off the shelf and could have gone home in 30 seconds, a happy woman. (Instead I found 2 more and then vamoosed!)

There is a prologue to The Big Burn which gives a glimpse of the fire in 1910. ... at its peak, the storm would consume three imllio I have to limit myself when I go to our Friends of the Library book sales or I'd run out of places to put things. The holdings are pot luck, of course, since they are all donated books, but I allowed myself in July to hope for this very book. I plucked it off the shelf and could have gone home in 30 seconds, a happy woman. (Instead I found 2 more and then vamoosed!)

There is a prologue to The Big Burn which gives a glimpse of the fire in 1910. ... at its peak, the storm would consume three imllion acres in barely two days. There follows a few chapters setting us up for the true description of this devastating fire. Teddy Roosevelt met John Muir in a trip out west when his dream of conservation in the west became the reason for his presidency. We are introduced to Gifford Pinchot, the first Supervisor of the new Forest Service. We meet several of the early Forest Rangers and some of those who just come to work in the forests.

And we learn of this very wild west where some of the small towns seem to have no existence apart from saloons and whorehouses. The eastern born and raised forest rangers have never seen such people who inhabit this beautiful place. One telegraph exchange from a ranger to headquarters goes like this.

"Two undesirable prostitues establshed on government land," he wired. "What should I do?"

"Another ranger wired back: "Get two desirable ones."

Most of this introduction is a bit dull, but it was necessary for the next 200 or so pages. Egan describes this in very active terms: "flames lunging", "mountains bellow", "continuous staccato". As this area was dotted with small towns, there were civilians in addition to those associated with the forest service. (Who would support those saloons and whorehouses?) ... the streets were packed with people, some fleeing for the river, intending to wait out the fire in the shallows, others riding horses and carriages straight out of town, unsure of whether they were heading into the fire or not. This long middle of the book was as much a thriller as any you'll read for that purpose. Who would live? Who would escape? Who would be found dead, or who not found at all?

This is creative nonfiction at its finest. But it *is* nonfiction. Egan ends his book telling us that the Forest Service changed its purpose after the fire, and then changed it again. I wasn't as enamored of this last mopping up of his story as I was the first part, but it wasn't enough to make me change my mind about giving it 5-stars. ...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Timothy Egan brings to life a massive disaster and a turning-point in US history. He makes history personal. We get to know some of the people involved from Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, to the legendary Pulaski, to corrupt Senators, to two Italian laborers. We see the birth of the national forest system, its struggles, its changes in policies. All of which have a big influence on our public resource management and how we live to this day.

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Jul 10, 2010 Donna Jo Atwood rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history, u-s-history, american-politicians, trees, 2010-summer-challenge

This history of an enormous forest fire (the size of Connecticut) is also a story of individual actions, government response, and new expectations. Rather timely, given the oil spill going on now.

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