Chicago may seem a surprising choice for studying thoroughbred
racing, especially since it was originally a famous harness racing
town and did not get heavily into thoroughbred racing until the
...1880s. However, Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries was second only to New York as a center of both
thoroughbred racing and off-track gambling. Horse Racing the
Chicago Way shines a light on this fascinating, complicated
history, exploring the role of political influence and class in the
rise and fall of thoroughbred racing; the business of racing; the
cultural and social significance of racing; and the impact
widespread opposition to gambling in Illinois had on the sport.
Riess also draws attention to the nexus that existed between horse
racing, politics, and syndicate crime, as well as the emergence of
neighborhood bookmaking, and the role of the national racing wire
in Chicago. Taking readers from the grandstands of Chicago's finest
tracks to the underworld of crime syndicates and downtown
poolrooms, Riess brings to life this understudied era of sports
history.
One of Chicago's landmark attractions, Graceland Cemetery
chronicles the city's sprawling history through the stories of its
people. Local historian and Graceland tour guide Adam Selzer
presents ten ...walking tours covering almost the entirety of the
cemetery grounds. While nodding to famous Graceland figures from
Marshall Field to Ernie Banks to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Selzer
also leads readers past the vaults, obelisks, and other markers
that call attention to less recognized Chicagoans like:
Jessie Williams de Priest, the Black wife of a congressman
whose 1929 invitation to a White House tea party set off a storm of
controversy;
Engineer and architect Fazlur Khan, the Bangladeshi American
who revived the city's skyscraper culture;
The still-mysterious Kate Warn (listed as Warn on her
tombstone), the United States' first female private detective.
Filled with photographs and including detailed maps of each tour
route, Graceland Cemetery is an insider's guide to one of
Chicago's great outdoor destinations for city lore and history.
In civil-rights-era Chicago, a dedicated group of black activists, educators, and organizations employed black public history as more than cultural activism. Their work and vision energized a black ...public history movement that promoted political progress in the crucial time between World War II and the onset of the Cold War. Ian Rocksborough-Smith's meticulous research and adept storytelling provide the first in-depth look at how these committed individuals leveraged Chicago's black public history. Their goal: to engage with the struggle for racial equality. Rocksborough-Smith shows teachers working to advance curriculum reform in public schools, while well-known activists Margaret and Charles Burroughs pushed for greater recognition of black history by founding the DuSable Museum of African American History. Organizations like the Afro-American Heritage Association, meanwhile, used black public history work to connect radical politics and nationalism. Together, these people and their projects advanced important ideas about race, citizenship, education, and intellectual labor that paralleled the shifting terrain of mid-twentieth century civil rights.
From the beginnings of colonial settlement in Illinois Country, the region was characterized by self-determination and collaboration that did not always align with imperial plans. The French in ...Quebec established a somewhat reluctant alliance with the Illinois Indians while Jesuits and fur traders planted defiant outposts in the Illinois River Valley beyond the Great Lakes. These autonomous early settlements were brought into the French empire only after the fact. As the colony grew, the authority that governed the region was often uncertain. Canada and Louisiana alternately claimed control over the Illinois throughout the eighteenth century. Later, British and Spanish authorities tried to divide the region along the Mississippi River. Yet Illinois settlers and Native people continued to welcome and partner with European governments, even if that meant playing the competing empires against one another in order to pursue local interests.
Empire by Collaborationexplores the remarkable community and distinctive creole culture of colonial Illinois Country, characterized by compromise and flexibility rather than domination and resistance. Drawing on extensive archival research, Robert Michael Morrissey demonstrates how Natives, officials, traders, farmers, religious leaders, and slaves constantly negotiated local and imperial priorities and worked purposefully together to achieve their goals. Their pragmatic intercultural collaboration gave rise to new economies, new forms of social life, and new forms of political engagement.Empire by Collaborationshows that this rugged outpost on the fringe of empire bears central importance to the evolution of early America.
Born to enslaved parents, Anthony Overton became one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Overton's Chicago-based empire ranged from personal care products and ...media properties to insurance and finance. Yet, despite success and acclaim as the first business figure to win the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, Overton remains an enigma.
Robert E. Weems Jr. restores Overton to his rightful place in American business history. Dispelling stubborn myths, he traces Overton's rise from mentorship by Booker T. Washington, through early failures, to a fateful move to Chicago in 1911. There, Overton started a popular magazine aimed at African American women that helped him dramatically grow his cosmetics firm. Overton went on to become the first African American to head a major business conglomerate, only to lose significant parts of his businesses-and his public persona as "the merchant prince of his race"-in the Depression, before rebounding once again in the early 1940s.
Revealing and panoramic, The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago weaves the fascinating life story of an African American trailblazer through the eventful history of his times.
Steel Barrio MICHAEL INNIS-JIMÉNEZ
06/2013, Letnik:
10
eBook
Michael Innis-Jimenezis a native of Laredo, Texas and Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Alabama. He lives in Tuscaloosa where he working on his next book ...on Latino/a immigration to the American South.In theCulture, Labor, Historyseries
Liquid Capital Salzmann, Joshua A. T
2017, 2017-12-04
eBook
In the nineteenth century, politicians transformed a disease-infested bog on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan into an intensively managed waterscape supporting the life and economy of Chicago, ...now America's third-most populous city. In Liquid Capital, Joshua A. T. Salzmann shows how, through a combination of entrepreneurship, civic spirit, and bareknuckle politics, the Chicago waterfront became a hub of economic and cultural activity while also the site of many of the nation's precendent-setting decisions about public land use and environmental protection. Through the political saga of waterfront development, Salzmann illuminates Chicago's seemingly paradoxical position as both a paragon of buccaneering capitalism and assertive state power.The list of actions undertaken by local politicians and boosters to facilitate the waterfront's success is long: officials reversed a river, built a canal to fuse the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, decorated the lakeshore with parks and monuments, and enacted regulations governing the use of air, land, and water. With these feats of engineering and statecraft, they created a waterscape conducive to commodity exchange, leisure tourism, and class harmony—in sum, an invaluable resource for profit making. Their actions made the city's growth and the development of its western hinterlands possible. Liquid Capital sheds light on these precedent-making policies, their effect on Chicago's development as a major economic and cultural force, and the ways in which they continue to shape legislation regarding the use of air and water.
Chicago in Stone and Clay
explores the interplay between the city's most
architecturally significant sites, the materials they're made of,
and the sediments and bedrock they are anchored in. This
...unique geologist's survey of Windy City neighborhoods demonstrates
the fascinating and often surprising links between science, art,
engineering, and urban history.
Drawing on two decades of experience leading popular geology
tours in Chicago, Raymond Wiggers crafted this book for readers
ranging from the region's large community of amateur naturalists,
"citizen scientists," and architecture buffs to geologists,
architects, educators, and other professionals seeking a new
perspective on the themes of architecture and urbanism.
Unlike most geology and architecture books, Chicago in Stone
and Clay is written in the informal, accessible style of a
natural history tour guide, humanizing the science for the
nonspecialist reader. Providing an exciting new angle on both
architecture and natural history, Wiggers uses an integrative
approach that incorporates multiple themes and perspectives to
demonstrate how the urban environment presents us with a rich
geologic and architectural legacy.
