Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book, clear window on the past
Review: It is not often that a book comes along that opens a window on the past as clearly as Ship Ablaze. The story of the Slocum is one that has needed a fine writer, and it has finally has it's
champion in Ed O'Donnell. My family was one of those families that wouldn't be around had it not been for the near-miss of my grandmother and her daughters, who were supposed to go on the boat that day, so our family has been personally interested in this story. Ship Ablaze puts you right back on the streets of New York in 1904, and takes you on board the Slocum, to really get the feeling of the times and of the day. Interesting sidebars are insights into the way people conducted their lives, as they prepared for the excursion, and the neglect, as well as the courage, of the paricipants. This is an important book for historians and non-historians alike, and will, in time, be regarded as the definative work on this subject. Hats off to a fine writer, who is on my list of must-reads, to be sure. Five well-deserved stars, (and if I could add more stars, I would!)
Rating: 
Summary: A Master Historian Does It Again!
Review: Ed O'Donnell, one of the best contemporary New York historians has woven the details of a disaster, which could be extremely maudlin, into a captivating tale of life in 1900 New York City. He has brought into focus the German-American community, which disappeared as a result of this tragic accident as none before. This was once the largest German ethnic community in the United States, and then it was gone. But the author does not stop there, he has anticipated our questions..."How could this happen?"..."Who was to blame?" and answers them. A good read cover to cover. Better than Harry Potter, because it is true and because it resonates in our own times. Bravo, Ed.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional among Disaster Books
Review: If you liked Perfect Storm, Into the Heart of the Sea, Isaac's Storm, Into Thin Air, and Krakatoa, you'll love SHIP ABLAZE. It's an extraordinary journey back in time to 1904. The reader is immediately immersed in the vivid detail of turn-of-the century New York City - everything from the height of new skyscrapers, to the smell of refuse on the street, to the city's complicated politics. Then begins the excruciating, but redeeming and ultimately ennobling story of the tragic fire -- NYC's worst disaster before 9/11. The reader is led through the terrible stories of those who lost loved ones, to the extraordinary tales of the every-day people who became heroes, to the prosecution of the men deemed responsible, and ultimately to the fairly rapid process of forgetting the story of the General Slocum and why this story of 1,021 lives lost remains relagated to footnotes on NYC history. Amazing stuff!
-- R Train
Rating:
Summary: Why Haven't We Heard About This?
Review: "Ship Ablaze" tells an astounding story of the calamity involving the steamship General Slocum. From beginning to end, it reads like a novel. The reader gets to know many of the people who were affected by this tragedy - the victims, the heroes, the cowards, and the scoundrels. In the end, we wonder why we haven't heard about this horrendous disaster. The book is fascinating reading!
Rating:
Summary: Not enough pictures, slow moving at first.
Review: Although the book is well written there should have been more pictures included in the book, I've seen other pictures of the
disaster that should have been included.It takes the author 70 pages to get the story off the ground. I'm
sure that most readers aren't interested in the number of newspapers that were available in New York at the time of the disaster. Also most readers would not be interested in the Mayor
of New York at the time of the disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Superb storytelling
Review: Edward O'Donnell has taken a forgotten chapter of American history and transformed it into a riveting tale of heroism and tragedy. With wonderful writing and telling details, he re-creates a community, the immigrant Germans of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and brings to life their hopes and, as the book progresses, their shattered dreams. But this is more than a well-written book. It is based on solid research and scholarship -- you'll find no made-up dialogue or internal monologues in this account. He sticks to the facts. They are telling enough.
This is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: As a confirmed disaster maven, I was excited to read Ship Ablaze by Edward T. O'Donnell. I was previously unaware of the General Slocum tragedy. I found Mr. O'Donnell's writing crisp and compelling. The book makes a smooth transiton from historical background to reporting of the events surrounding the fire and deaths of over a thousand people. There was just enough information on the people involved, and I was pleased with the author's follow up of main characters. The coverage of the legal issues was also very interesting. I have been a long time fan of Mr O'Donnell's Listmania disaster list, and his own book is among the best of his list.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate On Several Levels.
Review: Ship Ablaze is a book that will appeal to both General Slocum 'fans' and casual readers. I have spent the last 30+ years reading up on the ' Slocum and, to be honest, went into this expecting it to be, at best, a rehash of the most easily found 1904 news accounts and latter-day interviews. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find myself drawn into the book rather quickly, and won over within a chapter or two. Mr. O'Donnell deserves credit for doing a first rate research job. Credit should also be given to him for telling a good story without the now (sadly) prevalent practices of fabricating dialogue or filling in holes in the story with broad- and questionable- assumptions based on the surviving evidence. I can assure anyone who reads this that they will come away from Ship Ablaze satisfied, if somewhat saddened by the detailed- but never morbidly so- recounting of one of the most relentlessly tragic of all shipwrecks. This sounds cheesy, but my only regret about the book was that it was not several hundred pages longer. But then, I am a lifelong ' Slocum buff. Mr. O'Donnell has set the standard for all future works on the General Slocum.
Rating:
Summary: Excursion Boat Disaster Recalled
Review: In this riveting book Professor O'Donnell tells the story of the disastrous fire aboard the excursion boat General Slocum during a New York German-American Lutheran church outing in 1904. The book works, and works well, on a number of levels. As its major theme, it recounts in straightforward but exciting prose the most deadly disaster in New York City's history before the World Trade Center perfidy. This aspect of the book is fascinating and tragic. But O'Donnell also presents a good thumbnail sketch of the early twentieth century politics of New York and the grass roots impact of Rooseveltian Republican progressivism. Because the Slocum became the subject of intense newspaper coverage, the book also gives us an excellent street's-eye view of the world of journalism and muckraking shortly after the turn of the last century. O'Donnell's discussion of steamboating, and the safety and design of steamboats and the limited qualifications of their crews, is interesting and informative background to his analysis of how the fire on the Slocum started and why it was not contained and put to rest quickly. Perhaps, most unexpectedly, the book also gives us an engrossing view of the New York German community circa 1900, when "Little Germany," on the Lower East Side, was the fifth largest German city in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but impossible to read
Review: What I could read of this book was very exciting, factual and informative. Unfortunately every copy of it that I have encountered has the pages bound in no particular order. It is very distracting to leap from page 43 to page 127 then to page 110 then back to page 44. I certainly wish that I could find a copy that has the pages bound in consecutively.... What a novel concept!
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