Today, we have Matthew Davenport on the show. Matthew is an attorney and the author of two books, the second of which, The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 is the topic for today's conversation. Matthew's first book, First Over There, was a finalist for the 2015 Guggenheim Lehrman Prize in military history, and was heralded by Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPherson as "military history at its best." The Longest Minute is a fascinating look at the conditions that led to this terrible fire that destroyed the city of San Francisco in 1906.
Matthew has been a contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal book review and Salon.com and is a member of the Authors Guild. He is a native Missourian and a former prosecutor and now practices law in North Carolina where he lives with his wife and two sons. This was a great conversation where we were able to dig into the earthquake, the subsequent fire and a lot more.
In this brief intermission in our story, I make a small plea to support our podcast. Here's a link to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/historyofcalifornia
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