What are the best/your favorite books on Chicago's history?
Tim Lacy recently posted The 110 Best Books---According To The Daily Telegraph on his excellent blog, History and Education: Past and Present, and it got me thinking about my Chicago history library. (To be honest, I'm pretty much always thinking about history or books so this really isn't all that unusual.) The Daily Telegraph's list is comprised of what they consider the perfect library and covers various genre, such as classics, literary fiction, sci-fi, etc. You can check out the list for yourself.
My personal library on Chicago history is actually pretty skimpy, and the number of books on my Amazon Wish List (see bottom of page) far exceeds it. But, I'm working on it, and used books allow me to frequently add to the library while on a very limited budget. I don't want to take the bread out of the mouth's of authors, but I have found the content of a used book to be almost identical to that of a new one, and at a fraction of the cost. A girl has to do what she can...
But let's get back to the question...What would you consider the essentials of a perfect library on Chicago history? Consider selections for nonfiction, fiction, graphic coffee-table books, crime, humor, biography, poetry - anything you like. I'd really like to hear from you!
2 comments:
Sharon,
Once again, thank you for the kind words. My "perfect library on Chicago history" would include (but not be limited to):
1. William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis;
2. Harold Platt's Electric City;
3. Encyclopedia of Chicago;
4. Bessie Louise Pierce's A History of Chicago;
5. Eileen McMahon's What Parish Are You From?;
6. James Grossman's Land of Hope;
7. Liz Cohen's Making a New Deal;
8. Perry R. Duis's The Saloon;
9. Mike Royko's Boss;
10. Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor's American Pharoah;
11. ...That's it for now.
- TL
Tim, thanks for stopping by!
What, no Chicago literary history? Architecture? Sculpture? Challenging Chicago by Perry Duis?
Completely agree with the Pierce set and Nature's Metropolis. A couple I was not familiar with, but now have them on the old Wish List: Land of Hope and What Parish...? Great suggestions all!
Who's next?
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