num_pages: 347
description: The masterfully told story of 12 volatile days in the life of Chicago when an aviation disaster a race riot a crippling transit strike and a sensational child murder roiled a city already on the brink of collapse.When 1919 began the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling unglamorous place into the Metropolis of the World. But just as the dream seemed within reach pandemonium broke loose--the city's highest ambitions suddenly under attack by the same unbridled energies that had given birth to them in the first place.It began on a balmy Monday afternoon when a blimp in flames crashed through the roof of a busy downtown bank incinerating those inside. Within daysa racial incident at a hot crowded South Side beach spiraled into one of the worst urban riots in American history followed by a transit strike that paralyzed the city. Then when it seemed as if things could get no worse police searching for a six-year-old girl discovered her body in a dark North Side basement.Meticulously researched yet expertly paced City of Scoundrels captures the tumultuous birth of the modern American city with all of its light and dark aspects in vivid relief.
language: English
title: City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago
publisher: Crown