Fixing the problems in Illinois will be no easy task. But the authors of Fixing Illinois: Politics and Policy in the Prairie State want to get the wheels in motion. […]
Category: Chicago
The May 4, 1886 bombing that shook the world
On May 4, 1886, someone threw a bomb in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Timothy Messer-Kruse, author of The Haymarket Conspiracy: Transatlantic Anarchist Networks, and Leon Fink, editor of the recently released Workers in Hard […]
Q&A with Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant author José Ángel N.
José Ángel N. came to the United States from Mexico in the 1990s with a ninth grade education. An undocumented immigrant, N. traveled to Chicago where he found access to ESL […]
Read an excerpt of Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant
“With great eloquence and pathos, N. draws on his daily life and references philosophers from Socrates to Kant to describe the netherworld of the undocumented. He takes solace in his […]
How the Michigan Avenue bridge changed Chicago
It would be hard for any visitors or residents of modern-day Chicago to think of Michigan Avenue as a “quiet, tree-lined residential street.” Yet, Patrick T. McBriarty, author of Chicago […]
The Architecture of Barry Byrne a Printers Row favorite
The Architecture of Barry Byrne by Vincent L. Michael was named one of the top books of 2013 by the Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row. As the subtitle of the book, […]
Happy birthday, Barry Byrne
Influential architect Francis Barry Byrne was born on December 19, 1883. Born and raised in Chicago, Byrne worked with Frank Lloyd Wright as a member of the group of architects known […]
Happy birthday to Chicago’s Grand Avenue bridge
On December 13 Chicago’s Grand Avenue Bridge turned 100 years old. The bridge opened on in 1913 on what was once called Indiana Avenue—which makes sense as it is just […]
Q&A with Chicago River Bridges author Patrick McBriarty
Patrick T. McBriarty is a writer and creative producer based in Chicago and the co-producer, with Stephen Hatch, of the documentary film Chicago Drawbridges. He recently answered some questions about […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 20
Field Building, 135 S. La Salle Street. Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, 1934. View from southeast. (Contemporary post card, collection of the author) Announced on September 29, 1929 just days […]
Woodson Library event for The Negro in Illinois taped for BookTV
On Saturday, September 28, the Carter G. Woodson Regional branch of The Chicago Public Library was the site of a celebration of the publication of The Negro in Illinois. The event included a […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 19
Conway Building, corner of Clark and Washington Streets. D. H. Burnham & Co., 1913. View from northeast. (Contemporary post card, collection of the author) Four large neoclassical office blocks designed […]