Reviews

Company Eight by Matthew Pearl

cmzukowski's review

3.0

Ideally I would give this book a 3.5 and really was torn between whether to round to a four or a three. The book was incredibly interesting and showed a side of fire departments and their creation that I never knew about. My complaints are that is seemed rather rushed and I wish it had been longer. But it did motivate me to go look for more books on the subject and learned more about it because it really is highly interesting. To think that fire departments were originally rivals and would fight each other to be the first to a fire is something I never really knew happened. The book also goes into what the original fire engines were like (before engine powered trucks) and methods for fighting fires that involved the help of citizens even. It gives a whole new insight into their creation and advancement and shows you a side of fire departments that you might never have known existed.

cass_capital's review

3.0

Short vignette of a moment in time. Great illustration of culture and expectations of civic duty.