The story of two men's obsessions with the Chicago World's Fair, one its architect, the other a murderer. "The Devil in the White City" draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke ...
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, this book presents a vivid snapshot of Americas journey from Victorian-era propriety to 20th-century modernity.
Drawing on family interviews and memoirs, as well as hundreds of contemporary accounts, here is a meticulous account of the blizzard of January 12, 1888, which killed some 500 settlers in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota--many of them children lost on their way home from school.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains during the Depression, going from sod huts to new framed houses to basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out.
This book examines how it was possible and what it meant for ordinary factory workers to become effective unionists and national political participants by the mid-1930s. We follow Chicago workers as they make choices about whether to attend ethnic benefit society meetings or to go to the movies, whether to shop in local neighborhood stores or ...
A riveting account of one of the largest mine disasters in American history, "Trapped" captures the epic human drama surrounding the fire that claimed 259 lives on the morning of November 13, 1909 in the depths of St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Illinois.
The 1893 Chicago World's Fair is the setting for this true account of two very different men: the celebrated architect Daniel H. Burnham who designed and supervised the construction of the "White City" around which the fair was built, and H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett), a fiendishly clever serial killer posing as a doctor who murdered ...
Brimming with fascinating characters, this riveting history explores the infamous 1886 Haymarket bombing that shocked the nation and led to America's first Red Scare. Illustrations throughout.
The book that first made Studs Terkel's reputation as this country's foremost oral historian is a unique portrait of America at a time of change and hope.
Bringing a forgotten maritime disaster to life, this is the story of the sinking of the Eastland, a bold and breathtaking steamship that capsized offshore in Chicago on Saturday, July 24, 1915, killing a staggering 844 people.
During Prohibition, Chicago's Beer Wars turned the city into a battleground, secured its reputation as gangster capital of the world, and laid the foundation for nationally organised crime. Bootlegger bloodshed was greater there than anywhere else. The machine-gun murders of seven men on the morning of February 14, 1929, by killers dressed as cops ...
The bicentennial edition of this publication has been revised and updated and includes an additional chapter which examines Ohio through to the end of the 20th century. George W. Knepper presents contemporary information on the national and state political arenas, the economy and the environment.
On May 18, 1927, in a horrific conflagration of dynamite and blood, a madman forever changed a small Michigan town. "Bath Massacre" takes readers back more than eighty years to that fateful day, when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school, killing thirty-eight children and six adults. Among the ...
Arguably the most influential document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham's "1909 Plan of Chicago", co-authored by Edward Bennett and produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city's most distinctive features. Carl Smith's fascinating history reveals the Plan's central role in shaping the ...
On Christmas Eve 1913, more than six dozen people were crushed to death as they scrambled to flee the Italian Hall in Calumet, Mich. Someone had cried "Fire" at the top of the stairs that led to the meeting hall on the building's second floor. There was no fire. The entire even was over in a flash, but the tragedy would scar the psyche of the ...
The 1893 Chicago World's Fair is the setting for this true account of two very different men: the celebrated architect Daniel H. Burnham who designed and supervised the construction of the "White City" around which the fair was built, and H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett), a fiendishly clever serial killer posing as a doctor who murdered ...
Michael Lesy's portrait of a gruesome era could be fiction - but it's not. "Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else." So begins a chapter of Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicentre of murder in America. A city where daily newspapers fell over each other to cover the latest mayhem. A city ...
Intensely compelling, "Our Town" is Carr's epic account of a brutal lynching that took place in 1930 in Marion, Indiana, and the town's struggle to forget the events of that terrible night.
Combining a chronological overview with topical development, this team of esteemed authors presents in engaging detail the rich and varied history of Missouri, a state that has played a pivotal role in the nation's history from the pre-Columbian period to the present. In a clear engaging style that all students of Missouri history are certain to ...
This history explores the wealthy, powerful, charming, and manipulative Chouteauts, the family that dominated business and politics in the Louisiana Purchase territory before the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, and for decades afterward.
The Grand Excursion of 1854 brought 1200 people to the edge of the world. Of course, they knew the actual world went far beyond the Mississippi River. But they were city folk. To them a world without large citites, thriving businesses, and factories belching clouds of black smoke was still "savage." The small settlements between Davenport and St. ...
The river has seen it all, done it all, carried it all," writes David M. Solzman. "Its current whispers of the past even as it rushes into the future. Those who know the river and its connected streams know Chicago in an elemental way. In a strong sense, the river is Chicago. Follow the river and travel into the soul of the city." The river is ...
Lake Geneva was originally called Kishwauketoe by the Oneota tribe, a name meaning clear or sparkling water. Carved out by a glacier, this same crystal water has attracted residents and tourists for centuries, and continues to be a retreat for many in every season. Through a collection of vivid vintage postcards, authors Carolyn Hope Smeltzer and ...
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