The events of September 11, 2001
The Days After is a special section of our website devoted to our attempts to understand the changes wrought by the events of 9/11. We have nine essays by our authors as well as a list of books we have published relevant to the context of events. See also Books for Understanding, a list of relevant books from the American Association of University Presses.

Heat disaster toll reaches 739

In July 1995 more than 700 Chicagoans were the victims of a stealthy killer. Less dramatic than hurricanes, earthquakes, or tornadoes—and far more insidious in its singling out of the weakest members of the population—the 1995 heat wave killed twice as many as died in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Eric Klinenberg asks how it could happen that more than 700 people could die in a major American city during a time of historic prosperity. As meteorologists and medical scientists found out, the answer is not simply "the heat." The answer, rather, is a network of social and institutional conditions that have more to do with the breakdown of urban life than climbing temperatures. Klinenberg has dug through police reports and newspaper stories, has interviewed a broad range of city residents, and has charted the city's "official" response to the urgent events to put together not only the gripping story of how Chicago endured the worst disaster in its history, but also to reveal the long roots of decay in one of America's largest cities.

Why did so many people die alone? Why did some neighborhoods experience greater mortality than others? Klinenberg examines the accepted accounts of the disaster next to the heartbreaking tales of men dying alone in single-room occupancy hotels, of elderly African Americans sweltering in their apartments because they feared the more dangerous streets outside, and in general of what one investigator called "the secret society of people who live and die alone." Seen in this light, the deaths that resulted from Chicago's heat wave are not the result of a meteorological oddity but the inevitable product of a city that ignored the social and economic isolation of large parts of its population.

"By the end of Heat Wave, Klinenberg has drawn the lines of culpability in dozens of directions, drawing a dense and subtle portrait of exactly what happened during that week in July."—Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker

• Read our interview with Eric Klinenberg