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lalaoblivion's review against another edition
Not a fan. I wanted to enjoy it, but it was too dense.
lindseysparks's review against another edition
2.0
I bought this on my first trip to Chicago about 18 months ago and read it during my trip there this week. It's not bad, but it's disappointing. There's a lot crammed in here even though it's focused on a fairly short time period of the 40s and 50s and the narrative structure just didn't flow well for me. The author also seemed to expect you to know certain people or references that seemed a bit obscure to me. It didn't explain why he was talking about some of the people, so some of his choices seemed random. I did like the sections on architecture for the most part, race/housing and oddly Hugh Hefner. (I don't like Hefner but his story was interesting.) Sections on literature and art, topics I love, fell flat, as did the info on politics. I also felt like the author doesn't actually like Chicago very much or at least has an odd way of showing it. I also don't think it did a very good job of making the point of its subtitle: when Chicago Built the American Dream. He references this a few times but mainly in conjunction with Hefner and Ray Kroc, neither of which were actual focal points. There are probably much better books about Chicago out there. Now I'm stuck with deciding whether to keep this as a souvenir or not. That's the only problem with buying books as souvenirs - sometimes I don't end up liking them!
scrow1022's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating and also a but depressing to think about what could have been without the racism and the cronyism. Also interesting to see how many cultural references from my childhood are in there (thanks to my dad, who grew up here in the time period discussed).
nrschultz's review
3.0
This book was an interesting walk through the first half of the 20th century in Chicago. It focused on architecture, music, politics and race, and did a good job of telling individual stories in those realms. Whenever it tried to move out of the specific and into the general it felt like it wasnt backed up.
kiminohon's review against another edition
4.0
I loved reading this book. I really did but, when I finished, I was left feeling unfulfilled. There is a lot of great information and trivia in here but I was left wanting more. I wanted more than just the small snippets of biographies. I wanted to learn more about Chicago's issues with race and the Machine. I just wanted more of everything. :) On the other hand, it sometimes felt like there was too much information--too many names and facts to keep straight.
I think the scope of the book is almost too broad. There is just not enough room to fully delve into all of the issues and people of the time period. This is a great overview though and I learned a lot about the cultural history of Chicago in the mid-twentieth century.
I think the scope of the book is almost too broad. There is just not enough room to fully delve into all of the issues and people of the time period. This is a great overview though and I learned a lot about the cultural history of Chicago in the mid-twentieth century.