We've all heard of the Great Chicago Fire, but the Peshtigo fire is not nearly as well known. The Chicago fire destroyed about 3.3 square miles and killed approximately 300 people, and left many thousands homeless - a devastating event for a major city. But the Peshtigo fire destroyed over 2,400 square miles and 12 communities (Peshtigo was the largest), and while the total deaths will never be known, the estimate is between 1,500 - 2,000 people killed. But since the Peshtigo fire happened on the same night as the Great Chicago Fire, it's been overshadowed in the historical record.

I have a thing for disaster nonfiction, and when I first heard about the Peshtigo fire in Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 by Daniel James Brown (still one of my favorite disaster nonfiction reads!) I knew I had to learn more about it. This book has been on my shelf for a long time, and I'm glad I finally read it. It was shorter than I was hoping for, and I found the writing a little too scattered and lacking detail in a lot of places, especially in the second half of the book (although this could be to lack of source material). I'd still recommend it for anyone interested in disaster nonfiction or American frontier history.