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.