In July 1995, Chicagoans suffered through a blistering week-long heat wave that buckled streets and downed portions of the city's power grid. It also left over 700 people dead. In this alarming book, Eric Klinenberg tells us how such fatalities could have happened in a modern American city. The picture he paints - of social breakdown, unresponsive government and poorly equipped public services - is one no reader interested in the current state of American urbanism can afford to ignore.