Grasp Chicago: A Biography Author Dominic A. Pacyga Text

Pacyga is a gem. If you ever have the opportunity to take his History of Chicago class at Columbia College, please do, He is amazingly well informed and incredibly knowledgeable about anything and everything Chicago, Even though Pacgya and I dont see eye to eye on the Cubs vs Sox issue though we both reside on the South Side and had this discussion a myriad of times he is the most outstanding professor I have ever had in my life and wish he taught more subjects at Columbia.


His book covers every Chicago topic you could possibly dream up and is explained in basic terms for comprehension, Do yourself and favor and read this book, It may have taken me nine months but it's worth it in every way,

pacgyafilmfest I picked up this book on Michigan Avenue a long time ago and have always wanted to read it but have always put it off.
Ive been fascinated by Chicago since the first time I visited and I hoped this book would fill in some gaps in my knowledge of its history.
It definitely did and was very educational but it was missing the personality of the city, I think thats because it was focused on the economics, demographics and politics with little to no mention of culture arts, food, architecture, any of the things that give it character.
Still, the book does comprehensively cover its areas of focus, The author occasionally brings up events briefly without explaining further, and the book in general was not edited very well, Overall, Im glad I read it, A bit boring in places, but quite good on Chicago's history as center ring for America's industrial conflict in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I thought it was a great Biography of the best city in America! This was a required read for a college course I took years ago I wanted to reread most of it so I could enjoy it this time especially from the perspective of now living in Chicago for overyears now that I've grown to appreciate the change, rich culture, architecture, and character it has to offer.
A good addition to my short shelf of books on Chicago history and architecture, Pacyga maintains a chronological structure to his book, but highlights certain themes within each chapter,

Consistent with his subtitle, he tells Chicago's story through the lives of its people, from bit players like Elmer Ellsworth, the first Union officer to die in the Civil War pp. to leading men like Richard J, Daley, who receives a very sympathetic portrayal from Pacyga, Where else but in Chicago could the futile manhunt for Jean Crones pp,, suspected of thepoisoning of a group of civic leaders with arseniclaced soup, play out Or the random violence that took the life of Alvin Palmer on a Back of the Yards street corner inpp.


Pacyga is a South Sider, and he acknowledges that his account is skewed in that direction, a bit too much for my taste my three years in the metro were in a North Side suburb.
No index to his maps, but I like the generous selection of photographs integrated into the text and generally playing to each chapter's theme,

Where did the Cubs play before they opened Wrigley Field p,Where did Brach's candy get its start p,It's in the book.

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 into the new wave of urban pioneers today.
The citys great industrialists, reformers, and politiciansand, indeed, the many notsogreat 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 oneofakind 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.

Parts of this book were way more interesting than others, but I loved it overall, I feel like I know so much more about my city now, and it pointed me in the direction of things I want more information about, Chicago is a really amazing place, Epic book that delivers a very good overview of the citys history in less thanpages, It has whetted my appetite to dig deeper into three subjects: the explorations of Marquette and Jolliet the interaction between organized labor and anarchism in theth Century and the local ethnic tensions that were inflamed by the outbreak of World War I.
Im somewhat chagrined to learn that my ScandinavianAmerican forbears supported Germany, Very good! A greatvolume introduction, hits most of the high points, Must read if you are new to Chicago, Chicago, A Biography meets my criterion for both history books and books about Jayne Mansfield if you are going to bring up interesting points I want to see pictures of them.
So rest assured that Mr, Paeyga had dug through the archives and finely illustrates the volume from when the Indians first paddled up

the Chicago River and began taking Polaroids well into the recent era.


Paeyga stresses that Chicago is not so much a city, but a polyglot of ethnic enclaves, that somehow works, It is a dirty, grubbing, avaricious city that still finds it way to be a shining light of culture and downhome sophistication, Well done Mr. Paeyga.
Most histories that have to cover a lot of ground have trouble giving sufficient detail to make events clear and meaningful without losing the forest for the trees.
There are a few points at which this one misses in striking that balance, and at those points it can be a bit of a slog, Outside of that, though, a clear and usually succinct account of the city, with a good mix of economic and political developments that also does a good job of keeping the individual neighborhoods of Chicago in view.
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