Fourteenth Street:  A Chicago Story
Abraham H. Miller grew up in Chicago's notorious 24th Ward during the period of Lawndale's racial transition from an ethnic-white neighborhood to a black neighborhood.  The events and the period he writes about, although fictional, were inspired by real experiences and real people. As a young academic, he taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana and served on an intercampus-board at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he had direct involvement with the workings of the city administration. He subsequently became acquainted with Dr. Milton Rakove, who was the official historian of the Cook County Democratic Party, and a wonderful source of information on the workings of the Chicago machine. As a specialist in ethnic politics and political violence, Professor Miller brings to this fictional account of Chicago's racial transformation  the knowledge of an academician, the experience of having lived through this tempestuous period, and a perspective forged in the crucible of time and seasoned by hindsight. Professor Miller has published numerous academic articles on urban violence and was a counter-terrorism consultant to the National Institute of Justice.  No matter where he lives, he is and always will be a Chicagoan.