Full name: The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy

Author: Stewart O'Nan Year: 2000 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780385496858 0385496850

The acclaimed author of A Prayer for the Dying brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedy and heroism-the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. Halfway through a midsummer afternoon performance, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus's big top caught fire. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; in seconds it was burning out of control, and more than 8,000 people were trapped inside. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, O'Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events and illuminates the psychological oddities of human behavior under stress: the mad scramble for the exits; the hero who tossed dozens of children to safety before being trampled to death. Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The Circus Fire is history at its most compelling. Similar books: Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown Dead Wake by Erik Larson The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer The History of Jihad by Robert Spencer Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck The History of Surfing by Matt Warshaw Washington's Immortals by Patrick K. O'Donnell Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga American Gun by Chris Kyle Mythos by Stephen Fry No Way Out by Mitch Weiss Swords and Swordsmen by Mike Loades Dress in Anglo-Saxon England by Gale R. Owen-Crocker Easy riders, raging bulls by Peter Biskind Season of the Witch by David Talbot Almost a Miracle by John Ferling