First in violence, deepest in dirt
Subtitle: homicide in Chicago, 1875-1920
By: Jeffrey S. Adler.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 367
Subjects: Homicide -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Case studies.; Murder -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Case studies.; Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions.
Genres: Case studies.
Description: "Based on an analysis of nearly six thousand homicide cases, First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt examines the ways in which industrialization, immigration, poverty, ethnic and racial conflict, and powerful cultural forces reshaped city life and generated soaring levels of lethal violence. Drawing on suicide notes, deathbed declarations, courtroom testimony, and commutation petitions, Jeffrey Adler reveals the pressures fueling murders in turn-of-the-century Chicago. During this era Chicagoans confronted social and cultural pressures powerful enough to trigger surging levels of spouse killing and fatal robberies. Homicide shifted from the swaggering rituals of plebian masculinity into family life and then into street life." "From rage killers to the "Baby Bandit Quartet," Adler offers a portrait of Chicago during a period in which the characteristic elements of modern homicide in America emerged."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.