Great Chicago Fire | Out of the Ashes | 4
After the 1871 fire destroyed a third of their city, Chicagoans wanted to do more than rebuild. They wanted to envision a new kind of American city. That included everything from changes to fire codes...
17 Feb 202132min
Great Chicago Fire | The Great Rebuilding | 3
As dawn broke on October 10, 1871, the dazed survivors of the Great Chicago Fire stumbled through their burned and battered city. A 30-hour inferno had reduced Chicago to ashes.Homes and business were...
10 Feb 202140min
Great Chicago Fire | Fleeing the Flames | 2
Just before midnight on October 8, 1871, the inferno that had ravaged Chicago’s West Side leapt the Chicago River. A wall of flames surged toward downtown, threatening to devour Chicago’s most magnifi...
3 Feb 202135min
Great Chicago Fire | We Are Going to Have a Burn | 1
In 1871, Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world. Built almost entirely of wood, it was also a tinderbox. That October, a severe drought ravaged the city. Fires ignited constantly, and Chica...
27 Jan 202135min
Presidential Inaugurations: Traditions, Crisis, and Unity | 1
As America prepares to swear in a new president, we’ll look back to the inaugurations of the past. Jim Bendat, author of Democracy's Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President, 1789-2013, joins us as ...
20 Jan 202135min
Coal Wars | Charles Keeney on Restoring His Great Grandfather’s Legacy | 5
Once the coal miners lost the Battle of Blair Mountain, the story of their uprising was suppressed, and their leader Frank Keeney eventually faded into obscurity—even among members of his own family. ...
13 Jan 202145min
Coal Wars | The Battle of Blair Mountain | 4
The Coal Wars reached an explosive climax in August 1921, as thousands of miners furious over the death of their hero Sid Hatfield shouldered their weapons and marched south. Their destination was Min...
6 Jan 202137min
Coal Wars | Bloody Mingo | 3
In May 1920, Sheriff Sid Hatfield won the loyalty of Mingo County’s miners after a deadly gun battle that left seven Baldwin-Felts agents dead on the streets of Matewan, West Virginia. That summer, th...
30 Dec 202038min
