Chicago: A Biography

Chicago has been called by many names. Nelson Algren declared it a OC City on the Make.OCO Carl Sandburg dubbed it the OC City of Big Shoulders.OCO Upton Sinclair christened it OC The Jungle, OCO while New Yorkers, naturally, pronounced it OC the Second City.OCOAt last there is a book for all of us, whatever we choose to call Chicago. In this magisterial biography, historian Dominic Pacyga" "traces the storied past of his hometown, from the explorations of Joliet and Marquette in 1673 to the new wave of urban pioneers today. The cityOCOs great industrialists, reformers, and politiciansOCoand, indeed, the many not-so-great and downright notoriousOCoanimate this book, from Al Capone and Jane Addams to Mayor Richard J. Daley and President Barack Obama. But what distinguishes this book from the many others on the subject is its authorOCOs uncommon ability to illuminate the lives of ChicagoOCOs ordinary people. Raised on the cityOCOs South Side and employed for a time in the stockyards, Pacygaagives voice to the cityOCOs steelyard workers and kill floor operators, and maps the neighborhoods distinguished not by Louis Sullivan masterworks, but by bungalows and corner taverns.aFilled with the cityOCOs one-of-a-kind characters and all of its defining moments, "Chicago: A Biography" is as big and boisterous as its namesakeOCoand as ambitious as the men and women who built it."