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Updated on: August 16, 2026 / 9:57 AM EDT / CBS News We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. In 1936, America suffered a devasting heat wave that resulted in five thousand deaths. But not all civic responses to the health emergency were reasonable. In "The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America" (published by Pegasus Books), author Geoff Williams recounts the actions taken in one Kentucky city with regard to the heat – namely, setting out to arrest women whose warm-weather attire was considered too revealing. Read the excerpt below, and don't miss Mo Rocca's interview with Geoff Williams on "CBS Sunday Morning" August 16!
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Updated on: August 16, 2026 / 9:57 AM EDT / CBS News We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. In 1936, America suffered a devasting heat wave that resulted in five thousand deaths. But not all civic responses to the health emergency were reasonable. In "The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America" (published by Pegasus Books), author Geoff Williams recounts the actions taken in one Kentucky city with regard to the heat – namely, setting out to arrest women whose warm-weather attire was considered too revealing. Read the excerpt below, and don't miss Mo Rocca's interview with Geoff Williams on "CBS Sunday Morning" August 16!
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