Chicago Before the Fire
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Chicago Before the Fire

Chicago Before the Fire

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESSISBN: 9780252046582

An Economic History

Price:
$289.00


By Louis P. Cain
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Release Date:
Format: HARDBACK
Dimensions: 235 x 156 mm
Weight: 450 g
Pages: 304

Description

An advantageous location and entrepreneurial passion helped fuel Chicago's transformation from a fur trading post to a thriving city. Louis P. Cain's economic history places pre-1871 Chicago within the narrative of national expansion and examines infrastructure, finance, and other areas of city life. Business histories tell the story of fortunes made with essential products like meat and grain. Sketches of titans like William Ogden and Cyrus McCormick reveal how real estate, farm equipment, and other industries became engines of local growth. Cain also details public health improvements that made Lake Michigan safe as a water supply while census data informs a portrait of Chicago's population and the lives of the free Blacks and Irish immigrants at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Panoramic and up to date, Chicago before the Fire looks at how an intersection of geography, vision, and investment built a great American city.

Louis P. Cain is an adjunct professor of economics at Northwestern University and a professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago. He is the coauthor of The Children of Eve: Population and Well-being in History.

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction The Fur Trade and Chicago Pioneers and Boosters Assembling Trade Routes and Establishing Position How Chicago Grew Those behind the Growth Creating Position: Sanitation and Health Population and Labor The Lubricant of Growth: Money and Finance Summary and Final Thoughts Notes Bibliography Index

"In a deeply researched and highly readable mix of history, economics, and geography, Louis Cain offers a fresh understanding of how Chicago came to be. As he guides us through the conditions and contingencies that went into the creation of this remarkable place, we see Chicago rise before our eyes."--Carl S. Smith, author of Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City

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