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aggressive_nostalgia's review against another edition
I'll concede that the content has value; it was interesting and eye-opening and appropriately infuriating. I sincerely respect the author's years of effort and the comprehensive research invested into this book. Klinenberg's dedication to the subject is obvious, and I admire it.
However, his writing style was horrific: he was perpetually long-winded and unbelievably prone to redundancy, not qualities I'm searching for in nonfiction. He has no notion of conciseness—he could have conveyed all of the same information in a third of the page count. Also, the extremely academic style made it difficult for me to connect with the content more than superficially, which defeated a lot of the book's purpose, in my opinion. It's definitely not a book I would have either purchased or read were I not a bookish college freshman who dearly values my GPA.
There's been a play based off of the book, however; that I really might be interested in seeing.
However, his writing style was horrific: he was perpetually long-winded and unbelievably prone to redundancy, not qualities I'm searching for in nonfiction. He has no notion of conciseness—he could have conveyed all of the same information in a third of the page count. Also, the extremely academic style made it difficult for me to connect with the content more than superficially, which defeated a lot of the book's purpose, in my opinion. It's definitely not a book I would have either purchased or read were I not a bookish college freshman who dearly values my GPA.
There's been a play based off of the book, however; that I really might be interested in seeing.
christie_esau's review against another edition
4.0
Though this book can be a smidge dry (it's a history text) at times, the concept of a social autopsy and what it reveals of people in this particular disaster is FASCINATING. TL;DR - if you don't have a community of people, you're in trouble. Highly recommend this book; if it's too much for you, listen to this podcast: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/cautionary-tales/chicago-when-it-sizzles
schnoebs13's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
As someone who is from chicago and having heard stories of my mom talking me to the mall to combat the heat that summer, it was definitely a bit of a personal book for me. I have a lot frustrations with the politics of chicago and the overall neighborhood segregation that takes place that this just depressed me and frustrated me even more. I will say I think the author did an excellent job of trying to evaluate all the factors of this natural disaster which were clearly ignored that summer but I kind of wish there were a little bit more stats, figures, and analysis. That being said, it’s definitely an older piece of research h so that plays a fact and the author seemed to also be doing more of a qualitative analysis rather than quantitative but I feel like it could have helped more. This was definitely a reminder that history repeats itself often and reading this in a post COVID society, there’s many similarities we can tie between the two responses to the situation. Happy I read it and I think it’ll help remind me of certain perspectives in my day to day work at my job.
hillie's review against another edition
Ik was aan dit boek begonnen voor academische redenen: ik wilde dit misschien gebruiken voor een paper. Uiteindelijk is de paper nooit meer geschreven en heb ik het boek niet uitgelezen. Wat ik er wel van heb gelezen, de eerste paar hoofdstukken, was zeer interessant en kritisch op disaster.
21-09-2023: ook al heb ik het boek nooit helemaal uitgelezen, ik heb 'm toch op gelezen gezet, omdat ik de titel wil onthouden. Ik kom het thema wat hierin wordt geintroduceerd namelijk ook weer tegen nu bij stage klimaatadaptatie en hittestress onderwerpen. Heel interessant!
21-09-2023: ook al heb ik het boek nooit helemaal uitgelezen, ik heb 'm toch op gelezen gezet, omdat ik de titel wil onthouden. Ik kom het thema wat hierin wordt geintroduceerd namelijk ook weer tegen nu bij stage klimaatadaptatie en hittestress onderwerpen. Heel interessant!
esselleayy's review against another edition
3.0
Fascinating and heartbreaking. I moved to Chicago the year after this happened, so most of the story was new to me. I was not aware of the severity or the high number of fatalities. Essential reading for Chicago and urban studies.
That said, it's very much a sociology text and not narrative non-fiction. So it can be very dry and repetitive as the thesis and back-up statements are made at the beginning, then fleshed out a little more in the supporting chapters. You could read the opening and still get a really good grasp of the topic.
That said, it's very much a sociology text and not narrative non-fiction. So it can be very dry and repetitive as the thesis and back-up statements are made at the beginning, then fleshed out a little more in the supporting chapters. You could read the opening and still get a really good grasp of the topic.
dariasn's review against another edition
4.0
If you are looking for a good example of a case study - this is a brillant choice.