Meticulous research by Quaife yields the definitive account of the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Very little information has been added to his classic account in the past 50 years, although historians have tried desperately to find new information on the subject. Quaife also gives a picture of the history of the entire region surrounding Chicago. African-American historians may be interested in his detailed biography of DuSable.

Chicago is certainly well known for the fire of 1871 but how many people have ever heard of the fire which swept through the Iroquois Theatre thirty-two years later, leaving six hundred people dead in its wake? I admit that I never had heard about it so with Nat Brandt's excellent new book, "Chicago Death Trap", the lives of those lost and the hundreds of families that the tragedy touched can now be told.

The author is direct and writes in a sparse, conservative tone that works well. Within the covers of this small book, Brandt, after some good preparation about the Iroquois Theatre itself and the men behind it, spells out the details of the fire....how it started, how it spread, how it affected the cast and stagehands, (the performers were giving a presentation of the comedy, "Mr. Bluebeard", starring Eddie Foy, Sr.) and finally how people in a sudden and severe panic tried to saved themselves. This is not an easy book to read but I give the author credit....it is also not an easy book to put down. Brandt gives human faces to those who escaped and those who did not. He tells of incredible rescues and how the city responded moments after the fire started and days and weeks after the finger of blame began to point in all directions. He describes makeshift morgues and those who came to identify loved ones...if they could at all. He recounts the ramifications faced by officials and the theatre owners after the tragedy. The horrors are so individualized...down to the items of clothing and personal items worn by those in the theatre that afternoon.

It is perhaps toward the very end of this book that Nat Brandt makes his most poignant point... that other than a cemetery monument and a City Hall bas-relief nothing else exists in commemoration of the Iroquois fire. The memory of the fire seems to have passed as quickly as the fire itself. Thanks to this book, we have a chance to learn about this horrible day in Chicago's history.

Thoroughly researched and well written, "Chicago Death Trap" makes for enlightened reading about a tragedy reminiscent of the Titanic. Given that the Iroquois fire happened a hundred years ago, the author provides a surprising amount of detail and factual information.

Owners and managers of buildings open to the public must not be allowed, as they were in 1903, to evade responsibility for fire safety issues.

I could not put this book down, nor stop crying while I was reading it. Picture it - a beautiful, brand new 'state of the art' theatre, a children's pantomime full of thrilling set pieces, a jam-packed theatre - and all fire and building regulations flouted. The Iroquois disaster has the same hallmarks as the sinking of 'The Titanic'. A fireproof theatre with no exit signs and blind endings, no fire drills carried out, and an unsinkable ship with not enough life boats, no binoculars and panic striken passengers. These were not disasters caused by God, but man's greed and overweening pride. Don't be fooled - as 'Tinder Box' (which I also recommend - they are equally good, in different ways)makes crystal clear, such a theatre/cinema tragedy could happen again, and would probably be worse this time. There are generally fewer staff employed now, and they are equally under-rehearsed in evacuating a building. Please, please, always check where your nearest fire exit is!

Chicago is generally known as one of the centers of modernist architecture, and this visual guidebook, complete with maps, photographs and authoritative little essays on most of the important buildings, is a must-buy if you plan to tour this richly textured urban center. It's also one of the best small resources for anyone interested in architecture from 1850 to the present. Inexpensive, designed to slip in your pocket, it holds up well-- I depend upon mine to help me with the walking tours of the city I give on a regular basis, and it's still in one piece after three or more years of hard use.