Start Reading City Of Big Shoulders: A History Of Chicago Crafted By Robert G. Spinney Released As Bound Copy

up in the suburbs, Chicago has always kind of been a mysterious void, something I am connected to somehow but never really understood, like an estranged family member.
This book has taught me that while that family member may be bit crazy I'm not as far removed from him as I thought and indeed the similarities are quite shocking.
A great historical tool for anyone who wants to know more about the history of Chicago, I read this book for a summer sociology class on Chicago Loyola a few years ago and I find myself referring back to it often.
Before there was a city of Chicago, Native Americans knew about a marshy area they called Chigagou, meaning "the wildgarlic place, " This book traces Chicago's development from the area's first settler, the Haitianborn Jean Baptiste Pointe Du

Sable, through the wild speculation that defined Chicago's early days, and up to the present day Daleyrun machine that Chicago has become.
With an emphasis on trends political, racial, and sociological this book provides a good base for a better understanding of Chicago's place in history.
It's an interesting idea to give a history of a city and Chicago is a city with a story or more accurately stories to tell.
I thought the author did a good job of writing an informative and interesting book for the semi serious reader, Interspersed in the historical account, which starts with the Indians in thes, were a number of odd vignettes and facts that lent color to the book.
The author seems to do a good job of sticking to the facts and only interjecting a measured dose of commentary that, for the most part, seemed warranted.


But be warned, colorful vignettes aside, this is an ugly book, There weren't many heroes. There wasn't much that was noble and virtuous, This is not Mayberry. Yet I found it sobering in a helpful sort of way to learn how corrupt Chicago has often been and continues to be.
It is easy to forget how much corruption there is here in America as it tends to stay out of sight of those living in middle class suburbs.


Knowing the history of Chicago also helps to put things into perspective, It is easy to think that things are so much worse than they ever have been before, and maybe they are, but reading about the crime and vice that was commonplaceyears ago reminds us that it wasn't like America used to be the world as Norman Rockwell painted it to be.
Things may be going downhill, but things have been bad real bad since the beginning,

It also may be of interest to know that the same author has written a booklet on modesty, "Dressed to Kill" which is my favorite book on the subject and which led me to read this book on Chicago.


Some interesting notes and quotes:

Early French explorers transcribed the Indian name for the place as Chigagou, which meant 'the wildgarlic place.
' It was an inhospitable swamp where little grew and the winters were so harsh that few native peoples regarded it as a good place to stay.


Page: With mud streets littered with animals' carcasses, putrid meat, puddles of green putrid water, decaying vegetable matter, and livestock manure, one visitor insaid, "Chicago should be called the City of pestiferous odour.
" I think about that saying every time I pass by a manhole exuding sewage stank into the streets above,

Page: French political scientist Emile Boutmy speaking about Americans and their relationship to the land in the lates: "Their one primary and predominant object is to cultivate and settle these prairies, forests, and vast waste lands.
The striking and peculiar characteristic of American society is, that it is not so much a democracy as a huge commercial company for the discovery, cultivation, and capitalization of its enormous territory.
The United States are primarily a commercial society, . . and only secondarily a nation, "

"The city was an act of will, a défi, an imposition, a triumph over circumstance, There was nothing 'natural' about it, " Gary Wills Maybe that explains why the CTA system is so mediocre,

BEST CHICAGO NICKNAME EVER "PORKOPOLIS"!!!!!! Man, it does not get better than that, Wipes tear of laughter from eye, A good, concise history of the city that explains, among other things, how immigration and ethnic groups helped to shape Chicago and its politics.
A good, clear, and readable short history of the city something I have not found anywhere else, I think he's a little easy on the Daleys, especially, Richard M, the current mayor, but if you want a more critical look, read "Boss" by Mike Royko, Good narrative history of Chicago that manages to fit a lot of time into a short book, A little slow to read and textbooklike, but solid if you want an overview of the major timeline of Chicago, Read this for Chicago Sociology class, Definitely jammed pack with material, and I feel like I uncovered every stone there was to turn over about Chicago's history, helped me understand a lot about how Chicago came to be, Makes me view the city in a different light now, I just don't like history books lol, Extremely enjoyable overview of Chicago, Well paced and covers all the major events, You don't often see overarching themes so clearly laid out but then backed by concrete narratives, The author gave a particular well balanced view of Mayor Daley and the infamous Chicago machine, touching both scandals and economic benefits, a history of Chicago loved it!!!! This compact yet comprehensive account of Chicago's history links key events in the city's development, from its marshy origins in thes to today's robust metropolis.
Synthesizing a vast body of literature, Spinney presents Chicago in terms of the people whose lives made the citynot 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 wildgarlic 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 thes 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 CabriniGreen, 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, .