Which source would best a historian understand how the great chicago fire affected families?

The best source to understand how the Great Chicago Fire affected families would to simply ask those affected by it.

Public documents from the time, such as those that can be found in the Chicago Public Library.

Explanation:

Since the Great Chicago Fire took place in October 1871, the most reliable source to understand how the tragic event affected families would be an official document that keeps track of the statistics regarding the incident (such as how many people were killed by the fire and other consequences).

Taking this into account, a reliable source of information could be the Chicago Public Library, founded after the fire took place. There, written documents and reports should shed some light on the issue.

Furthermore, to get an idea of how the fire affected lives, real photographs, works of artists and newspaper articles from the time could also count as reliable sources.

the years following the end of world war i were a period of deep social tensions, aggrevated by high wartime inflation. food prices more than doubled between 1915 and 1920; clothing costs more than tripled. a steel strike that began in chicago in 1919 became much more than a simple dispute between labor and management. the steel strike of 1919 became the focal point for profound social anxieties, especially fears of bolshevism.

organized labor had grown in strength during the course of the war. many unions won recognition and the 12-hour workday was abolished. an 8-hour days was instituted on war contract work and by 1919, half the country's workers had a 48-hour work week.

the war's end, however, was accompanied by labor turmoil, as labor demanded union recognition, shorter hours, and raises exceeding the inflation rate. over 4 million workers--one fifth of the nation's workforce--participated in strikes in 1919, including 365,000 steelworkers and 400,000 miners. the number of striking workers would not be matched until the depression year of 1937.

the year began with a general strike in seattle. police offers in boston went on strike, touching off several days of rioting and crime. but the most tumultuous strike took place in the steel industry. then some 350,000 steelworkers in 24 separate craft union went on strike as part of a drive by the american federation of labor to unionize the industry. from management's perspective, the steel strike represented the handiwork of radicals and professional labor agitators. the steel industry's leaders regarded the strike as a radical conspiracy to get the company to pay a 12-hour wage for eight hours' work. at a time when communists were seizing power in hungary and were staging a revolt in germany, and workers in italy were seizing factories, some industrialists feared that the steel strike was the first step toward overturning the industrial system.

the strike ended with the complete defeat of the unions. from labor's perspective, the corporations had triumphed through espionage, blacklists, and the denial of freedom of speech and assembly and through the complete unwillingness to recognize the right of collective bargaining with the workers' representatives.

during the 1920s, many of labor's gains during world war i and the progressive era were rolled back. membership in labor unions fell from 5 million to 3 million. the us supreme court outlawed picketing, overturned national child labor laws, and abolished minimum wage laws for women.

the correct answer is "pioneers carried all of their possessions on long and dangerous trails".

the first wave of pioneers travelled in 1842. they were merely 100 people. the next year that sum climbed to 1000 men, women, and children. these people travelled around 2,000 miles to oregon in the hopes of a better life. although the first part of the trip didn't present many obstacles, as time and miles went by they learnt that threat came from simple things, like becoming ill due to unclean water or bad food.

the weather didn't much, as wagons couldn't protect them from storms. as they travelled through the desert, the intense heat caused wood to shrink. their own lips abscessed and split because of the dry air. the only cure for this was to rub axle grease on their lips.

even crossing rivers was dangerous. sometimes wheels were damaged by unseen rocks on shallow water. mud didn't much either. pioneers were afraid of indian attacks, but there aren't many records of fights between pioneers and native americans. accidents happened because of negligence, exhaustion, guns, and bad weather.

history says that 1 of 10 pioneers who travelled to oregon didn't survive the journey. diseases spread fastly because they didn't have doctors and medical care was ofently improvised. one of the most deadly diseases they came upon was cholera, which became a worldwide pandemia.