![]() Klinenberg tells the story in an unshowy and often academic tone, but beneath the plain language sits a lesson in horror that attracted less attention than it deserved. It is also about how the media failed to recognize the selectivity of heat and how the city government played down its failure to prepare and respond. The Worst Hard Time, which won this year’s National Book Award for nonfiction, focuses on the epicenter of the Dust Bowl a stretch of high plains ranging from the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles through the southeastern corner of Colorado and the western half of Kansas up to the Nebraska border. Many of the dead were found alone in rented rooms that were described in official reports as "roach infested" or a "complete mess." But "Heat Wave" is about more than just the deaths themselves. Eric Klinenberg, in a book that mixes journalism with sociology, shows how urban heat seeks out the elderly and the poor, who tend to be socially isolated. ![]() The high temperatures killed more than 700. Some drank prodigious quantities of water. Some people stood next to flowing fire hydrants. Hot pavement expanded, and streets buckled. ![]() Air conditioners taxed the city's electrical grid, ushering in a blackout. ![]() 1During the Chicago heat wave in July 1995, cars overheated and broke down. ![]()
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