City of Big Shoulders: A History of Chicago - Softcover

Spinney, Robert G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0875805833 ISBN 13: 9780875805832

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000

Synopsis

This compact yet comprehensive account of Chicago's history links key events in the city's development, from its marshy origins in the 1600s to today's robust metropolis. Synthesizing a vast body of literature, Spinney presents Chicago in terms of the people whose lives made the city—not only the tycoons and the politicians but also the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the world who have kept the city working.

City of Big Shoulders sweeps across the colorful and dramatic panorama of Chicago's explosive past. How did the pungent swamplands that the Native Americans called the wild-garlic place mushroom into one of the world's largest and most sophisticated cities? What is the real story behind the Great Chicago Fire? What aspects of American industry exploded with the bomb in Haymarket Square? Did the 1920s in Chicago roar as loudly as Hollywood would have us believe?

A city of immigrants and entrepreneurs, Chicago is quintessentially American. Spinney traces formative events in the city's history, bringing to life the people, events, and institutions that are most important for understanding Chicago's story. From Fort Dearborn to Cabrini-Green, Père Marquette to Mayor Daley, the Union Stockyards to the Chicago Bulls, City of Big Shoulders draws together diverse threads of the city's development, shedding light on underlying social and economic causes of major events and, especially, on the roles of ordinary people.

Engaging and highly informative, this account will interest students and teachers of urban history, as well as anyone looking for a brisk overview of Chicago's history. Historic photographs and informative tables illuminate the narrative.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Spinney taught Chicago history for a number of years. He is the author of World War II in Nashville.

From Publishers Weekly:

One wonders how Chicagoans have felt being saddled, since the 1920s, with the sobriquet "hog butcher for the world"Afrom the first line of Carl Sandburg's ode to the vitality of the second city. For this condensed yet energetic and substantial history of Chicago, Spinney has appropriately chosen the reference from Sandburg's poem's fifth line, to a "city of big shoulders"Afor so much of the city's story emerges from the interwoven struggles of American-born and immigrant workers. Beginning with the earliest glimmerings of what was to become a major American cityAChigagou is a Native American word meaning "the wild garlic place"Athis history moves from the influx of European missionaries, traders and explorers in 1673 to those who populated the preeminent boom town in the mid-19th century to the enormous tide of European immigrants who occupied Chicago in the latter half of that century. Spinney (World War II in Nashville), a former professor of history, has a firm sense of historical narrative as well as a keen eye for entertaining and illuminating detail. He deftly illustrates how differences in assimilation patterns affected city politicsAthe Poles retained their national identity amid tightly controlled neighborhoods; the Italians came to Chicago to work and then returned to Italy; while the Irish moved into positions of civil power. He also successfully draws upon important historical moments, such as the great fire, the Haymarket massacre, the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the careers of politicians like William "Big Bill" Thompson and Richard Daley, to illustrate the greater themes and struggles in the city's history. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0875805833
• ISBN 13: 9780875805832
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314