My Chicago

by Byrne, Jane; Simon, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780810120877
• ISBN10: 0810120879
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: Northwestern Univ Pr

Summary

By the end of her first meeting with the late mayor Richard J. Daley, Jane Byrne had been questioned, berated, and told she might, one day, reach the House but probably not the Senate-and she had also reduced him to tears. That would be but the first of many altercations in her pioneering political career. My Chicago is the story of Jane Byrne's rise from young campaign worker to the mayor's office, all within the bruising arena of Chicago politics. Part sociopolitical history, part memoir, it begins with a history of the city and her early life, before she enters politics as a paid staff member of JFK's presidential campaign and, soon after, begins service in the Chicago Machine, but not of it. Her view from the inside allows Byrne to sketch portraits of Daley, for whom she eventually worked, members of the Kennedy family, and Presidents Carter and Reagan. And, of course, it provides a fascinating perspective on the battle to succeed Daley, which ended with her own triumph over the Machine and a controversial term as mayor, which saw her begin development across the city and (famously) move into the Cabrini-Green housing project. The first memoir by a Chicago mayor in two generations, My Chicago is a valuable history as well as an entertaining look at no-holds-barred city politics.

Author Biography

Jane Byrne was born in 1933 in Chicago. In 1979 she became the first woman mayor of Chicago after defeating the Democratic Party candidate in the primary.

Table of Contents

2004 Foreword	9	(4)
Foreword The First Meeting	13	(5)
A Magic of Its Own	18	(19)
The Spirit of Chicago	37	(15)
Haymarket Violence	52	(10)
The White City	62	(12)
Coming of Age	74	(17)
Modern Chicago	91	(16)
The Roaring Twenties	107	(13)
Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?	120	(15)
The Dark Shadow of War	135	(13)
Postwar Prosperity	148	(17)
The King Maker	165	(14)
The Challenge to the Machine	179	(13)
The City That Wasn't Working	192	(13)
It Can't Happen Here	205	(17)
The Tumultuous Seventies	222	(17)
Daley's Last Hurrah	239	(12)
The New Mayor of Chicago	251	(19)
Great Dreams for Chicago	270	(30)
A Time of Affluence	300	(25)
Madame Ex-Mayor	325	(17)
Afterword	342	(13)
References	355	(6)
Bibliography	361	(16)
Index	377	(8)
Acknowledgments	385