La memoria del fuoco a Chicago. “The Great Fire” e la costruzione dell’identità urbana, anche su web

This article examines the Great Fire of Chicago in order to understand the event’s place in a collective idea of the prime position of re in the foundation of urban identity. It will aim principally at understanding the mechanisms through which a connection between the memory of re and re itself has transformed itself into an urban identity. The creation of a city museum, in line with similar initia- tives in Europe during the second half of the nineteenth Century, will help to interpret these mecha- nisms. The Great Fire is, then, a fundamental aspect in the history of the american city, marking the transition from small communities to cities, from random growth to urban planning, from unregulated development to the construction of skyscraper, from the era of land grabs to the beginning of regulation and controlled urban growth.