Chicago: A Biography

Chicago has been called by many names. Nelson Algren declared it a City on the Make. Carl Sandburg dubbed it the City of Big Shoulders. Upton Sinclair christened it The Jungle while New Yorkers naturally pronounced it the Second City. At 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 citys great industrialists reformers and politiciansand indeed the many not-so-great and downright notoriousanimate 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 authors uncommon ability to illuminate the lives of Chicagos ordinary people. Raised on the citys South Side and employed for a time in the stockyards Pacyga gives voice to the citys steelyard workers and kill floor operators and maps the neighborhoods distinguished not by Louis Sullivan masterworks but by bungalows and corner taverns. Filled with the citys one-of-a-kind characters and all of its defining moments Chicago: A Biography is as big and boisterous as its namesakeand as ambitious as the men and women who built it.