City of the Century The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America

by Miller, Donald L.

• ISBN13: 9780684831381
• ISBN10: 0684831384
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-03
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

The epic of Chicago is the story of the emergence of modern America. Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900.Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects -- which included the reversal of the Chicago River and raising the entire city from prairie mud to save it from devastating cholera epidemics. The saga of Chicago's unresolved struggle between order and freedom, growth and control, capitalism and community, remains instructive for our time, as we seek ways to build and maintain cities that retain their humanity without losing their energy.City of the Centurythrobs with the pulse of the great city it brilliantly brings to life.

Author Biography

Donald L. Miller is the John Henry McCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He is the author of five previous books, including the highly acclaimed Lewis Mumford: A Life.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 15
Discovery	p. 27
The Priest and the Explorer	p. 27
Joliet's Dream	p. 41
"Didn't Expect No Town"	p. 48
Wild Chicago	p. 48
Banishing the Past	p. 58
Odgen's Chicago	p. 66
The Founder	p. 66
A Prairie Aristocracy	p. 76
The Grid and the Balloon Frame	p. 81
The Great Chicago Exchange Engine	p. 89
The Big Junction	p. 89
The Mechanical Man	p. 103
Stacker of Wheat and Wood, Packer of Pork	p. 106
Empire City of the West	p. 122
Chicago Against Nature	p. 122
City of Extremes	p. 131
My Lost City	p. 143
The Great Fire	p. 143
Unapproachable in Calamity	p. 158
That Astonishing Chicago	p. 179
"Grander and Statelier Than Ever"	p. 179
America's City	p. 188
The Chicago Machine	p. 198
Empires of Order and Blood	p. 198
A Fortress of Oppression	p. 216
The Pullman Idea	p. 224
Steel Rails to Country Kitchens	p. 240
The Streetcar City	p. 254
Palaces of Desire	p. 254
The Loop	p. 265
City and Suburb	p. 273
Sunday in Chicago	p. 294
Stories in Stone and Steel	p. 301
Something New Under the Sun	p. 301
Burnham and Root	p. 314
The Major's Birdcage	p. 335
Factories in the Sky	p. 347
Sullivan and Civic Renewal	p. 354
The Auditorium	p. 354
A Proud and Soaring Thing	p. 366
The New Chicago	p. 378
Burnham's White City	p. 378
Hutchinson's Three-Ring Circus	p. 385
Harper's University	p. 393
The Social Defense of Caste	p. 404
The New Chicago Woman	p. 413
Cleansing the City	p. 423
The Battle for Chicago	p. 435
Politics "Ain't Bean Bag"	p. 435
Why the Ward Boss Rules	p. 452
Haymarket	p. 468
It's Harrison Again	p. 482
1893	p. 488
The Fair	p. 488
The "Gomorrah of the West"	p. 505
Stories of the Streets and of the Town	p. 516
After the Fair	p. 533
If Christ Came to Chicago!	p. 533
Regeneration	p. 542
Notes	p. 555
Bibliography	p. 639
Acknowledgements	p. 683
Index	p. 685
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.