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Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 by Pyne Stephen J. (2002-05-28) Paperback
"1910 was America's millennial year of fire. That summer, American nature and American society collided with tectonic force as western wildfires scorched millions of acres, darkened skies in New England, and deposited soot on the ice of Greenland. Farms, mining camps, and rail towns cracked and burned. A survivor said that the towering flames raged with the sound of a thousand trains rushing over a thousand steel trestles. As one ranger put it, the mountains roared." "Stephen Pyne explains how wildland fires happen and how they are fought, how forests are created then re-created in cycles of burning, and what happens to a landscape when roads, railways, mining camps, logging, and national parks appear. The action distills into a two-day crisis, the Big Blowup of August 20-21, when the fires tripled in size, and focuses in particular on the heroics of Ranger Ed Pulaski, who held his panicked crew at gunpoint in a mine tunnel while the firestorm raged outside." "Pyne brings that year to life through the experiences and words of the rangers, soldiers, politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, and civilians who faced the fires, fought the flames, and were forever scarred by them. It was the first and greatest test of the five-year-old Forest Service. Yet even as seventy-eight fire-fighters perished, a national debate raged about policy, and especially about the relative merits of firefighting versus fire lighting."--BOOK JACKET.
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First published May 7, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 28, 2015
It took the author 23 years from when he first started to accumulate "raw collecting" to completing tis book, at times it felt like it was going to take that long for me to finish it. Never the less, it is a very good book. Why is it a good book? It is a well researched story about the development of the nation's Forest Service, the competition between local and national control of America's vast forest reserves which back in the later half of the 1800's was just not about the western half of the country but the vast forests of New England, southern and upper Midwest states as well, the morality of using fire ( an event that naturally occurs ) as a tool and by-product of wood and coal burning locomotive technology to forward expansion of settlement and productive use of the land ( including multi-year studies in the west to see if destruction by fire could eliminate competition for precious water in arid watersheds ), and the philosophies and politics that the Forest Service and various agencies that manage our public lands would follow for generations regarding fire fighting and give us Smokey, the public mascot of preventing man-made fires. Just as importantly it is also a well detailed story of the great fires of 1910 fueled by a wet winter followed by drought mainly in the areas of Idaho and Montana but also in other western states and Minnesota that year that consumed many times the lives and areas of fire destruction that now grab our headlines and short attention spans. The author goes into detail the lives and actions of the people who fought the fires in the Idaho region, the heroic and even chaotic process back then to get bodies, anyone, on the fire lines to create fire lines and put out the small fires before they became big fires trapping fire fighting crews and whole towns in their paths. This is where the story gets a little rambling and hard to follow but I don't fault the author for it. It is almost the nature of the story since there is a lot of ground to cover in telling the story of those individuals and groups who fought, and sometimes died, and the treatment they received by the government afterwards in the summer event of 1910. As I finished the book I couldn't help but recognize the parallels and outcome of the year of the fires and a more recent disaster we know as 9-11. Both sparked the growth of large federal and state bureaucracies to fight their causes. It is an interesting, well-researched book written by an author passionate to tell the story of how this nation developed its vast reserves of public lands and then protecting them.
September 7, 2007
It's a three-star saddle rating, by which I mean its first and final thirds - being futile exercises in trying to keep track of names devoid of personalities & political fracas devoid of corporeal environments - are distinctly two-star sections: alienating, clinical, textbooky. But its middle third is spectacular: an obscure chapter in American history as dramatic as the sinking of the Titanic, writ large & fiercely poetic by Pyne. The writing in this middle third is exquisite, reason enough to read the book. Now had Pyne lavished as much passion on the introduction & epilogue to this terrifying American narrative that was the Big Blowup - had he grounded them in as much sensual detail, had he allowed us to see the men as personalities instead of historical cogs - as he does on the central hundred pages, well, the book would've been worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. Instead, it's a dry-as-dust two-star work with a five-star sandwiched-in middle hundred pages as gripping as anything I've ever read. And as such: a three-star rating.
May 5, 2015
This is a pretty good book that places nature and ultimately, fire, as an agent within the story. It is written as a narrative and geared towards a wider audience, but it is still good scholarship. I think the organization, month by month, is a bit forced and I think he repeats himself a bit. As well, he sometimes wants to convey his theory a bit too often when it isn't necessary (it is clear what his position is throughout the book -- far too many people ignored true science and not nearly enough money went to fighting fires).
All in all, it is a good read for both hobbyist and historian, and I'd recommend it. If one finds parts repetitive, such as the case studies, they are easily skimmed and the story does not lose its appeal.
All in all, it is a good read for both hobbyist and historian, and I'd recommend it. If one finds parts repetitive, such as the case studies, they are easily skimmed and the story does not lose its appeal.
June 17, 2008
In depth analysis of the political, historical, and other human events surrounding this natural disaster. Very informative but a lot of information is repeated again and again without clear contextualizing on focal points. The author is well versed in his subject, but the editor failed to assist him in tightening up the writing - which would have made this a stellar book instead of a really good one.
December 8, 2012
I will admit to having a bit of trouble with this book. I was anticipating something other than what I got. It was heavy on Washington politics of the time and light on fire, at least portions of it. I slogged my way through.
December 25, 2020
When looking back through history, fires appear to be - simultaneously - both more and less than the sum of their parts.
They're less than the sum of their parts, in the sense that fires begin to blur together across time and space. The fires across the Western US in 1910 that Pyne revisits in this account are no exception, with individual blazes holding incredible significance to those who suffered directly... and yet appearing almost forgettable from a vantage decades onwards. Indeed, the fires that stand out in the historical record - as Pyne shows throughout this book - often do so because of historical happenstance, because of which narratives idiosyncratically curry broad public interest (cough, Pulaski, cough), because of chance-driven prominence relative to the rest of the season. It's the flaw that condemns all too many fire (and disaster, more broadly) books to an engaging purgatory: a multitude of disaster stories can be told in an interesting, engaging kind of way, making for page-turning reads... but they often fall flat on in answering "so what" at the end of it all. A recent read of mine, 428 Days, exemplifies this: it's an incredibly engaging, vibrant book... yet it almost feels like cheap fiction by the end; a story that means everything and nothing simultaneously.
At the same time, though, fires are also sometimes more than the sum of their parts. Pyne tells this story too, trying to draw an answer to the big question "why do the fires of 1910 matter?" In this case, Pyne presents a thoroughly evidenced case that - thanks to their magnitude, the reporting about them, and ripe conditions - the fires of 1910 were ultimately responsible for the obsession with fire suppression that would characterize America's relationship with forest fires for a century to come.
"Year of the Fires" exists in the tensions between these two realities. The individual fires contained within are, concurrently, both fleeting and significant; both forgettable in the sands of time and profoundly influential in their consequences.
In some ways, then, this becomes two books in one. The central story - a tick-tock style, chronological narrative of personal journeys in 1910 - is bookended by the context and analysis that argues for their role in creating the suppression obsession as we know it. This does also mean, though, that the book can feel a little disjunct at times. As previous reviewers have pointed out, if you're into the action vignettes of the middle, you might find the political and historical analysis of the before and after less compelling. That said, Pyne is a historian's historian, and the material in both portions is meticulously evidenced, thoroughly researched, and representative of unparalleled expertise in the history of fire.
In the sake of full honesty, like other reviewers, I also do have to note that the writing isn't the most 'page-turning' in the world. I think this arises for two reasons. First, there are orders of magnitude more characters in this story than I could track effectively throughout the duration of the book. This is entirely understandable and justifiable in the context of a rigorous historical text, but it does mean that the reading process must be quite active to draw a thread through literal dozens of ebbing, flowing, and periodically recurring storylines. Second, the writing style is highly erudite and academic; chock full of incredible material, but requiring a fair bit of thought and reflection to parse. Don't get me wrong: it is /good/ writing even if is not exceptionally accessible or engaging... but this is a book that does demand quite a bit of the reader.
Even with that said, though, there simply isn't an account of the fires of 1910 that can match Pyne's insight, expertise, perspective, and mastery. Pyne is the world's preeminent fire historian for good reason and this book represents yet another demonstration of that fact.
They're less than the sum of their parts, in the sense that fires begin to blur together across time and space. The fires across the Western US in 1910 that Pyne revisits in this account are no exception, with individual blazes holding incredible significance to those who suffered directly... and yet appearing almost forgettable from a vantage decades onwards. Indeed, the fires that stand out in the historical record - as Pyne shows throughout this book - often do so because of historical happenstance, because of which narratives idiosyncratically curry broad public interest (cough, Pulaski, cough), because of chance-driven prominence relative to the rest of the season. It's the flaw that condemns all too many fire (and disaster, more broadly) books to an engaging purgatory: a multitude of disaster stories can be told in an interesting, engaging kind of way, making for page-turning reads... but they often fall flat on in answering "so what" at the end of it all. A recent read of mine, 428 Days, exemplifies this: it's an incredibly engaging, vibrant book... yet it almost feels like cheap fiction by the end; a story that means everything and nothing simultaneously.
At the same time, though, fires are also sometimes more than the sum of their parts. Pyne tells this story too, trying to draw an answer to the big question "why do the fires of 1910 matter?" In this case, Pyne presents a thoroughly evidenced case that - thanks to their magnitude, the reporting about them, and ripe conditions - the fires of 1910 were ultimately responsible for the obsession with fire suppression that would characterize America's relationship with forest fires for a century to come.
"Year of the Fires" exists in the tensions between these two realities. The individual fires contained within are, concurrently, both fleeting and significant; both forgettable in the sands of time and profoundly influential in their consequences.
In some ways, then, this becomes two books in one. The central story - a tick-tock style, chronological narrative of personal journeys in 1910 - is bookended by the context and analysis that argues for their role in creating the suppression obsession as we know it. This does also mean, though, that the book can feel a little disjunct at times. As previous reviewers have pointed out, if you're into the action vignettes of the middle, you might find the political and historical analysis of the before and after less compelling. That said, Pyne is a historian's historian, and the material in both portions is meticulously evidenced, thoroughly researched, and representative of unparalleled expertise in the history of fire.
In the sake of full honesty, like other reviewers, I also do have to note that the writing isn't the most 'page-turning' in the world. I think this arises for two reasons. First, there are orders of magnitude more characters in this story than I could track effectively throughout the duration of the book. This is entirely understandable and justifiable in the context of a rigorous historical text, but it does mean that the reading process must be quite active to draw a thread through literal dozens of ebbing, flowing, and periodically recurring storylines. Second, the writing style is highly erudite and academic; chock full of incredible material, but requiring a fair bit of thought and reflection to parse. Don't get me wrong: it is /good/ writing even if is not exceptionally accessible or engaging... but this is a book that does demand quite a bit of the reader.
Even with that said, though, there simply isn't an account of the fires of 1910 that can match Pyne's insight, expertise, perspective, and mastery. Pyne is the world's preeminent fire historian for good reason and this book represents yet another demonstration of that fact.
January 23, 2021
Book 1 for 2021: Year of the Fires by Stephen J. Pyne
This book is the story of the "Big Burn" of 1910 (5 years after the formation of the US Forest Service). The narrative centers on the northern Rockies where millions of acres were burned, hundreds of lives lost, and a policy of woodland fire suppression which lasted for decades began.
It is part history (including other fires in the Midwest, the Northeast, and the South in its accounting), part science (fire ecology), and part fire policy. Pyne puts the events and legacy of 1910 into context showing that the longstanding policy of fire suppression was doomed to fail in the long run. The global Big Burn (climate change) dictates a careful application of firefighting, controlled burns, and letting it burn.
"Then [1910], the Big Blowup was a disaster, a call to arms, an accidental creation story. Now [2008], that scene is viewed with astonishment, admiration, and dismay as a foundational episode that was politically misdirected into a war on for that subsequently instituted an ecological insurgency that suppresion alone can no longer hope to contain." (p. 282)
This book is the story of the "Big Burn" of 1910 (5 years after the formation of the US Forest Service). The narrative centers on the northern Rockies where millions of acres were burned, hundreds of lives lost, and a policy of woodland fire suppression which lasted for decades began.
It is part history (including other fires in the Midwest, the Northeast, and the South in its accounting), part science (fire ecology), and part fire policy. Pyne puts the events and legacy of 1910 into context showing that the longstanding policy of fire suppression was doomed to fail in the long run. The global Big Burn (climate change) dictates a careful application of firefighting, controlled burns, and letting it burn.
"Then [1910], the Big Blowup was a disaster, a call to arms, an accidental creation story. Now [2008], that scene is viewed with astonishment, admiration, and dismay as a foundational episode that was politically misdirected into a war on for that subsequently instituted an ecological insurgency that suppresion alone can no longer hope to contain." (p. 282)
August 4, 2021
An excellent review of the evolving history of forest fire management in America. His description and analysis of the Big Blowup fires of 1910 are insightful and interesting in light of current methods of wildfire fighting. The book leads to greatly needed discussions.
December 18, 2017
Really interesting content, but the writing was redundant and unclear.
May 20, 2023
I've read several books on wildfires in the 1800 and 1900s primarily in what Pyne refers to as the lake states. Some of them have included references to Pyne's work or this book in particular which is why I put it on my list.
In general I was disappointed. It was more a book about the history of the Forest Service than the 1910 fires. A certain amount of history of the Forest Service would have been fine and would have helped to explain the response to the fires but he went on and on. He also tried to fit that history into the month by month chronological account of 1910 which in my opinion didn't work. He kept going back and forth from one man's biography to another's. I couldn't keep track of who was who nor could I figure out who might be important to make note of and who was a passing mention.
And by the way I majored in history so reading accounts of government agencies and their development isn't foreign to me. I just wasn't looking for it here.
It's not a bad book but it isn't what it's title implies.
In general I was disappointed. It was more a book about the history of the Forest Service than the 1910 fires. A certain amount of history of the Forest Service would have been fine and would have helped to explain the response to the fires but he went on and on. He also tried to fit that history into the month by month chronological account of 1910 which in my opinion didn't work. He kept going back and forth from one man's biography to another's. I couldn't keep track of who was who nor could I figure out who might be important to make note of and who was a passing mention.
And by the way I majored in history so reading accounts of government agencies and their development isn't foreign to me. I just wasn't looking for it here.
It's not a bad book but it isn't what it's title implies.
July 9, 2015
Super educational. I had a tough time reading is, as I am not super passionate about fires or firefighting as the author was. The author is not an historian, but you would never know from his well-documented, thorough accounts of all of the massive wildfires out West.
I learned a great amount about what goes into fighting forest fires, and the various tactics that have evolved over the years, especially after the great fires in Yellowstone that brought a shift in thinking about natural forest fires.
I also learned a great deal about the beginning of Forestry as a field of study, the beginnings of the U.S. Forest Service, and Connecticut native Gifford Pinchot. I had never heard of him until this book but soon realized what a major historical actor he was.
I learned a great amount about what goes into fighting forest fires, and the various tactics that have evolved over the years, especially after the great fires in Yellowstone that brought a shift in thinking about natural forest fires.
I also learned a great deal about the beginning of Forestry as a field of study, the beginnings of the U.S. Forest Service, and Connecticut native Gifford Pinchot. I had never heard of him until this book but soon realized what a major historical actor he was.
October 27, 2007
I bought this copy at a gift shop in Wallace, ID this past summer. Wallace was at the center of the maelstrom of the Great Fires of 1910. I am not a forestry nor firefighting professional and only an amateur historian. As such I found this book to be hard-going a lot of the time. The topic is covered thoroughly. I learned things. But I would recommend this book only to forestry or firefighting professionals or folks with a specific interest in that place and time or in legislation dealing with the protection of lands under the protection of federal or state governments.
February 11, 2010
A true and interesting story about the growth of the Park System and the role that some of the Nation's worst forest fires had in its growth and in the careers of some of our nations prominent politicans.
Hoever, this story takes you into the blazes and their consequences and makes you wonder what would happened today,if they started in such a mad sequence once again now that many parks fringe the border of denser population.
Hoever, this story takes you into the blazes and their consequences and makes you wonder what would happened today,if they started in such a mad sequence once again now that many parks fringe the border of denser population.
January 19, 2010
A good historical background, if a little dry at times, of the personalities and events that lead to the decades of disasterous management decisons regarding fire control, decisons we are still dealing with the effects of.
December 14, 2008
Educational but a little dry. I did enjoy it overall though.
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May 25, 2012A must-read for anyone in federal land management.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews