So Others Might Live

Description

"A useful and relentless reminder of the scourge of fire--a weapon of terror long before 2001--and the routine heroism of the city's firefighters."-- New York Times . In the first history of the New York Fire Department--FDNY--in over sixty years, journalist Terry Golway weaves together stories of heroic firefighters and extraordinary fires to create a moving and original account of New York as seen through the eyes and actions of the city's firefighters. From the eighteenth century's most ambitious public-works project--the building of aqueducts from upstate to help control fires--to firefighter-turned-politician Boss Tweed's backroom politics, fire and firefighters have played an integral part in the life of New York. So Others Might Live also offers a new view of the building of modern urban America and the social turbulence of New York from the 1700s to the present day.

Terry Golway, columnist and City Editor of The New York Observer, is a frequent contributor to the Irish Echo, American Heritage, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times. He is the co-author of The Irish in America, and the author of For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Ireland's Heroes, and Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland's Freedom. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.