A picaresque biography of a picaresque city; a thick tome that,
despite its weight, one puts down with reluctance. Miller
(History/Lafayette College; Lewis Mumford: A Life, 1989) begins in
1673, with Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the first Europeans
to explore the site. But the true focus of the narrative is the
19th century, following Chicago's explosive growth from a small
fort in 1803 to a sprawling city of more than a million people 90
years later. The climax of the book is Chicago's 1893 Columbia
Exposition, an almost unimaginably opulent, massive display of
American achievement. It was appropriate that this world's fair
commemorating 400 years of American development should be hosted by
Chicago, writes Miller, who embraces the common thesis that
19th-century Chicago was the most American of American cities: "the
epic of Chicago is the story of the emergence of modern America."
But Miller takes the argument one step further, asserting that
Chicago differed from the rest of the country because it took the
most significant trends shaping America to their extremes, for
better and for worse. Nowhere else was unbridled capitalism given
such free reign. Nowhere else was there a location so ideally
suited to the production of wealth and the emergence of "the most
compelling of all creations of the 19th century, the wildly
expanding industrial metropolis, city of smoke and steel and
sweat." Miller describes Chicago as a "living drama" peopled by
colorful, complex characters: industrial and merchandising geniuses
who created jobs but exploited and denigrated their workers, for
example; or the corrupt politicians who nonetheless also gave much
to their constituents. Miller argues that Chicago illuminates our
era as well. Capitalism's pluses and minuses, the influence of the
city, the responsibilities and limitations of government, the
ferment that generates artistic creativity, and other very modern
issues are made clearer by this epic history. (Kirkus Reviews)
The epic of Chicago is the story of the emergence of modern America. Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900.
Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects -- which included the reversal of the Chicago River and raising the entire city from prairie mud to save it from devastating cholera epidemics. The saga of Chicago's unresolved struggle between order and freedom, growth and control, capitalism and community, remains instructive for our time, as we seek ways to build and maintain cities that retain their humanity without losing their energy. City of the Century throbs with the pulse of the great city it brilliantly brings to life.
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