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Chicago is a tale of two cities, headlines declare. This narrative has been gaining steam alongside reports of growing economic divisions and diverging outlooks on the future of the city. Yet to keen observers of the Second City, this is nothing new. Those who truly know Chicago know that for decades-even centuries-the city has been defined by duality, possibly since the Great Fire scorched a visible line between the rubble and the saved. For writers...

"They were three Black girls. Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade. They bonded--fervently and intensely in that unique way of little girls--as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the...

Take in the sights of Chicago's forgotten byways, including a cow trail through a downtown hotel. Pause reflectively at the cemetery in a working scrapyard and the church built without a nail. Stop by the one-time homes of Walt Disney, Joe Louis, Hillary Clinton and Al Capone. Along the way, greet forgotten Chicago notables like the vice president who won a Nobel Prize and wrote a number-one pop hit. From the shortest street to the oldest house, John...

Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century. Chicago's wealthiest citizens--Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman--were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Herald proclaimed a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the country. Substantial homes were...

"Explore the history of Chicago throughout the year with daily entries of historical anecdotes"-- Provided by publisher.

The Black leader discusses his political philosophy and reveals details of his life, shedding light on the ideas that enabled him to gain the "In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream...

"Woman have been in the forefront of social reform, education, the arts, and the sciences in America's Second City. Crusading journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, social reformer Jane Addams, blues pianist Lovie Austin, arts maven Bertha Palmer, geographer Zonia Baber, Latina organizer Maria Martinez, and labor organizer Elisabeth Christman are but a few of the hundreds of women whose inspiring lives are documented in Women Building Chicago 1790-1990....

"Elected to govern a city roiled by racial and economic crises, Richard M. Daley adroitly wielded the tools of power in the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics. His achievements ranged from rebuilding a dying downtown to the creation of the iconic Millennium Park to replacing the city's notorious public housing high rises with affordable new communities. But corruption and graft, City Hall's role in calamities like the 1995 heat wave, and inaction...

"Forgotten today, Annie Turnbo Malone was an influential Black business leader in the early 20th century. She turned her personally developed hair care products into a successful industry, including schools that taught the Poro method in her Poro Colleges. One of her students was the much more famous Madame C.J. Walker. She not only encouraged Black women to feel good about their hair, she showed them how to be entrepreneurs. Annie Turnbo Malone is...

"The Harlem Globetrotters weren't from Harlem, and they didn't start out as globetrotters. Globetrotter is the fascinating biography of Abe Saperstein, a Jewish immigrant who took an obscure group of Black basketball players from Chicago's South Side, created the Harlem Globetrotters, and turned them into a worldwide sensation"-- Provided by publisher.