City Of Scoundrels: The 12 Days Of Disaster That Gave Birth To Modern Chicago (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Written in the spirit of David von Drehle's "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America," Daniel James Brown's "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics," or Laura Hillenbrand's masterful "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption," Gary Krist turns a historical account of the events of a short period of time and a focused place (in his case, 12 days in the summer of 1919 in downtown Chicago) into a spell-binding tale with implications for the very age in which we live. Within a span of 12 days in the summer of 1919, Chicago faced dramatic upheaval in the form of an aviation disaster, the abduction and killing of a young girl, a transportation strike that immobilizes the world's sixth largest city, and race riots that harken back to 1917 East St. Louis Illinois and forward to 1960s Detroit and Watts.The center section of the book focuses significantly on the response of the city's second-term mayor, "Big Bill the Builder" Thompson and his administration's corrupt and politically-motivated machinations, in the face of the upheaval. But other people of note including Sterling Morton (of the Morton Salt family), activists Ida Wells-Barnett and Jane Addams, poet/journalist Carl Sandburg, journalist Ring Lardner, and Illinois Governor-turned-1920 Presidential contender Frank Lowden, among others, all make frequent appearances on the pages of "City of Scoundrels."It's a book I simply stumbled upon at a local bookstore, having never seen nor heard of it before. (Thankfully, we still have a few in our area where such discoverability is still the norm.) It's a book that I happily recommend to readers of 20th Century American history, or those who may wish to attempt to make sense of recent race-related upheavals in American cities. The book is informative and motivating, on both fronts. Being a Chicago Native, I had this on my list to read. The book is a great look into the city pre-Capone era and the beginning of prohabition. The inside look into Chicago polotics is eye opening and how they at times relate that its the same set up as today. Its interesting to show how the newpapers played a key roll and had multiple daily editions to keep the news current with the people of the city. As apposed to today with the internet. What I got from this book is a great example of politics at its worst, and selfish actions at its best.
What do You think about City Of Scoundrels: The 12 Days Of Disaster That Gave Birth To Modern Chicago (2012)?
This reads like a novel. Very engaging. I enjoy historical non-fiction told in narrative style.
—Lindsay
Tried to love this book that started out exciting....but was unreadable 50 pages in. BORING!
—Kenneth
Quite interesting read on history if Chicago. Strongly recommended!
—nessa
