Hot Time in the Old Town

Download or read book Hot Time in the Old Town written by Edward P. Kohn and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the worst natural disasters in American history, the 1896 New York City heat wave killed almost 1,500 people in ten oppressively hot days. The heat coincided with a pitched presidential contest between William McKinley and upstart Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who arrived in New York at the height of the catastrophe. Showing how Bryan's hopes for the presidency began to flag just as a bright, young police commissioner named Theodore Roosevelt was scrambling to aid the city's poor, Hot Time in the Old Town vividly captures both the birth of the Progressive Era and one of New York's greatest--yet least-remembered--tragedies.