On the evening of 2 May 1878, the Washburn A Mill in Minneapolis erupted in flames, sending the flourmill's concrete roof flying several hun dred feet in the air. Neighboring buildings were flattened and pandemo nium filled the streets. One-third of the city's business district burned to

Edmund Russell is an associate professor in history and science, technology, and society at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is Evolutionary History: Uniting His tory and Biology to Understand Life on Earth (2011). James Allison is a Ph. D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia. A former energy and environmental attorney, his forthcoming dissertation" Sovereignty and Survival: American Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination" explores the effects of the 1970s energy crises on American Indians and explains how tribes possessing valuable energy resources seized this moment to fundamentally reshape their role within the federalist system. Thomas Finger is a Ph. D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia. His forthcoming dissertation ex amines the nineteenth-century Atlantic grain trade to trace the connections between the development of American commercial agriculture and British" factory-style" industrial ization. John K.(Jack) Brown has taught the history of technology at the University of Virginia since 1992. Brian Balogh is Compton Chair and professor of history at the Uni versity of Virginia. His most recent book is A Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America (2009). W. Bernard Carlson is a pro