City on Fire
307 pages, 6 x 9
12 b&w photos
Paperback
Release Date:15 Feb 2014
ISBN:9780292759237
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City on Fire

The Explosion that Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle

University of Texas Press

First published in 2003, City on Fire is a gripping, intimate account of the explosions of two ships loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer that demolished Texas City, Texas, in April 1947, in one of the most catastrophic disasters in American history.

Bill Minutaglio is author or coauthor of eight books, including Dallas 1963, In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas, First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, and Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Newsweek, Outside: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Texas Monthly, among other publications. He has been interviewed on the Today Show, CNN, NPR, PBS, and the BBC. He lives in Austin, Texas.

  • Introduction
  • Texas City Police Department
  • The Priest: April 7, 1947
  • The Voyage: April 7, 1947
  • The Priest: April 8, 1947
  • The Ship: April 8, 1947
  • The Company: April 9, 1947
  • The Ship: April 9, 1947
  • The Priest: April 9, 1947
  • The Ship: April 10, 1947
  • The Mayor: April 10, 1947
  • The Ship: April 10, 1947
  • The Mayor: April 10, 1947
  • The Warning: April 14, 1947
  • The Ship: April 14, 1947
  • The Priest: April 16, 1947, 6:00 A.M.-9:12 A.M.
  • The People: April 16, 1947, 6:00 A.M.-9:12 A.M.
  • The First Words from Texas City: April 16, 1947, 9:12 A.M.
  • The Scientist: April 16, 9:12 A.M.
  • The Mayor: April 16, 1947, 9:12 A.M.
  • The City: April 16, 9:12 A.M.
  • The Mayor
  • The People: April 16, 1947, 9:12 A.M.
  • Photo Section
  • The Priest: April 16
  • The Second Explosion: April 16, 10:00 A.M.-Midnight
  • The President: April 17, 1947
  • The City: April 17, 1947
  • The City: April 18, 1947
  • The Gangster: April 19, 1947
  • The Priest: April 24, 1947
  • The Unknown Dead: June 22, 1947
  • The Mayor: August 23, 1947
  • “United States of America, Defendant”: April 1948
  • The Trial: April 1950
  • “By Direction of the President of the United States”: 1949-1952
  • The King Can Do no Wrong: Summer 1953
  • “Speak Freely”: Fall 1953
  • “Pleased to Advise”: 1954-1955
  • Good People: April 2001
  • Acknowledgments
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