In the work Faith and Doubt<\/em>, Carl Smith analyzes the societal state of Chicago following the fire through various accounts and articles of individuals effected by the disaster.\u00a0 Rather than try and find a primary cause of the fire, Smith focuses on the post-fire reactions of the public and the use of religion as the primary reason for the fire.\u00a0 As the embers died down and the city searched for answers to the inferno, religion acted as a reinforcement of Chicago’s divine nature among the urban centers of the world.\u00a0 As sin and avarice descended upon the city, a divine flame cleansed the city of its wrongdoings and allowed for the rebirth of the city’s purity.\u00a0 Through examination of this theme of zealotry in Chicago society, Smith states that “need for reformation was quickly buried under the theme of ultimate good,” subsequently allowing for the city to look towards an enriched future.\u00a0 However as Smith examines other accounts of valiant acts of heroism, the humility of the brides or the reactions of the investors, the core sentiments extracted from these works is that of a united people of a single identity joining together to create a Chicagoan spirit to rebuild the devastated city.\u00a0 Justin Rodriguez<\/a> notes that the progression of works regarding the actions of individuals lead away from religious fervor and into self promotion, however the differing accounts of piety, humility and valiance do not contradict each other.\u00a0 Rather than prescribe themselves to a single notion of character, the varying accounts presented by Smith allow the reader to understand the nature of the thriving urban centers and the unique identity that forms among its populace.\u00a0 With this understanding, it is possible to take the accounts of the individuals and create an image of Chicago as a center of diversity that can overcome adversity in its ranging forms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the work Faith and Doubt, Carl Smith analyzes the societal state of Chicago following the fire through various accounts and articles of individuals effected by the disaster.\u00a0 Rather than try and find a primary cause of the fire, Smith focuses on the post-fire reactions of the public and the use of religion as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}