City of Big Shoulders: History of Chicago - Hardcover

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

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)
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