The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern Day America, by Geoff Williams
The Summer of Death chronicles the freakish meteorological events of 1936 but couldn’t feel timelier in light of this summer’s heatwave. As author Geoff Williams concedes, determining the casualties of the 1936 summer heat is imprecise. Like Covid, the heat preyed upon the elderly and the vulnerable. “Nobody can ever say for sure, but 12,000 is a conservative estimate,” he writes after juggling the stats.
Williams arranges The Summer of Death day-by-day, looks for stories of individual people, the everymen as well as the stars. Although the cause of Jean Harlow’s death may have been numerous, a case could be made for the deadly heatwave. Hollywood continued to crank out movies despite the conditions.
The 1936 heatwave harmed agriculture and encouraged the construction of federally funded swimming pools. Air conditioning was rare. The White House had it. Most homes, offices and even hospitals did not. Decades would pass before air conditioning became pervasive and became a source of global warming.
Sad sidenote: Williams records that scientists as far back as 1938 warned of global warming. The Summer of Death is a vital beach-read for our times.
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