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Edward Kohn an assistant professor at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, talks to an audience member during a book signing after his presentation, "High Time in the Old Town: New's Catastrophic Heat Wave of 1896" in Milner Wednesday, March 7. (Photo by Daneisha Goodman / Staff Photographer) |
There was not an empty seat on March 7 as students and faculty filled Milner Library to hear from author, Edward P. Kohn speak about his latest book, Hot Time in the Old Town: The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt. The book is based on one of America’s largest and most forgotten natural disasters: the Great Heat Wave of 1896. The ten-day heat wave in New York City had devastating and far-reaching consequences.
Kohn knew he wanted to write a book that exposed the myth of Roosevelt’s western cowboy persona. Contrary to what most American’s think, the president grew up in New York, and was born to a very wealthy prominent family. When trying to find evidence that would support this, Kohn stumbled upon a letter Roosevelt had written to his sister during his time in New York as police commissioner and found the idea for his next book.
The letter read, “Well we’ve had two excitements in New York this past week; the heated term and Bryan’s big meeting.”
Kohn investigated further and found that the events that took place over August 4-13 in 1896 were worth writing about. Not only did the heat wave take more than 1,300 lives, but it also was the making of one presidential candidate and the downfall of another.
William Jennings Bryan was the 1896 Democratic presidential candidate up against Republican William McKinley. Bryan was coming to New York with incredible momentum after his successful “Cross of Gold” speech he delivered in Chicago. The speech had propelled him to the front-runner position of the election.
Bryan now needed to impress New Yorkers just as much as he had Chicagoans, and perhaps the close election would be his. There was one issue though; he was scheduled to deliver his speech August 12 at Madison Square Garden in the midst of the deadly heat wave. It is estimated that over 4,000 of the 12,000 attendees left during the speech due to the intense heat. This was possibly a contributing factor to Jennings loss in the presidential race, according to Kohn.
While Jenning’s political career may have suffered from the natural disaster, seemingly Roosevelt’s began to flourish. The heat wave occurred just five years before Roosevelt ran for his presidency. The approach he took to handling the heat wave foreshadowed the hands on methods he demonstrated as president.
Most of the victims that suffered from the heat wave’s effects were the poor. A majority of the underprivileged lived in tenements, which were densely populated buildings that held one family to one room. Most tenements did not even have a window. The conditions in these buildings were almost unlivable. During the heat wave, most residents were forced to sleep on the fire escape.
The U.S. government decided to hand out ice in the tenement district, a radical notion in 1800’s politics where there was little government responsibility to the public, Kohn said. New York’s Mayor at the time, Mayor Strong, was vehemently opposed to government involvement. In an unprecedented move, Roosevelt personally handed out the ice and saw to it that the high demand item was distributed fairly.
As Roosevelt was a Harvard educated aristocrat, it was impressive that he worked so closely with the poor, Kohn said. He did not have to supervise and tour the districts, but he did, which spoke volumes to his ideals. Kohn compared Roosevelt’s empathic work to President Obama’s previous work as a community organizer in the slums of Chicago.