Customer Reviews

Challenging Chicago: Coping with Everyday Life, 1837-1920

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For anyone who knows the challenges of "coping with every day life" in Chicago, in this book lies many surprises. Modern day dwellers of Chicago will appreciate all those who came before them. Modern day historians of Chicago will wish they wrote this book. I, admittedly a representative of both groups, look at Chicago and it's history with a greater understanding of the people who "coped" before me. People are the key. From the first page the reader begins to identify with the needs and dreams of people just trying to make ends meet. The origins of our neighborhoods and the history of the people who built them give meaning and surprising insight how Chicago is the sum of all it's parts. Challenging Chicago also offers a treasure of old photographs that add to the story of everyday life in Chicago. If you're buying a book on Chicago this year-buy this one. Your next walk down the streets of Chicago will come alive with the stories of people who walked there first.

Perry R. Duis presents an intreging insight to life in Chicago during the period between boom of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, 1837, to the boom of the twenties, 1920, and intervening up and downs.
The prospect of becomming rich working on the canal intreged many people, hard working and scam artists. The book, written in six parts, delves into many of the cons and tragidies and successes that many suffered. The City was not always a healthy place to live, many learned to live in the City dispite these problems.
The book covers how many made fortunes and lost them. How neighborhoods developed, burned and redeveloped.
Health institutions were started and overburdened, causing spread into, what is now the suburbs and edges of the City.
The book would be an excellent addition to anybody who is interested in the history of Chicago.

This book really touched me very deeply. My family came to the city during the late 1800's. The struggles of the people and the mass of challenges they faced seems daunting to those of us who are ancestors.

This book truly gave me a new perspective on the struggles that my family went through when they settled in Chicago. It gives me a new view of life as we now have it compared to those days.

One would never really understand what the people of Chicago faced during the growth of the city during the era discussed in this book. Duiz capyured the essence of the struggles quite well.

To the author, I say Thanks for the wonderful insights you gave me!

Fascinating prose on subjects I would rarely consider interesting. Yet this author makes the stories of the city's infrustructure read like a novel. Truly impressed by his referenced work and his knowledge of the city. Made me wish I could step back in time.

This book is not an entire history of Chicago, but it is a very detailed look into the daily lives of those who lived here in the 19th century. Fascinating information, especially for me, whose ancestors lived here then.

This book really touched me very deeply. My family came to the city during the late 1800's. The struggles of the people and the mass of challenges they faced seems daunting to those of us who are ancestors.

This book truly gave me a new perspective on the struggles that my family went through when they settled in Chicago. It gives me a new view of life as we now have it compared to those days.

One would never really understand what the people of Chicago faced during the growth of the city during the era discussed in this book. Duiz captured the essence of the struggles quite well.

To the author, I say, "Thanks for the wonderful insights you gave me! "

I don't mean to be unkind, but this book is really pretty worthless as much more than something you leave on your coffee table to impress your less perseptive guests. All the other reviews must have been written by the author or his friends, because their descriptions have little to do with my own perception of this book. In the first place, it is written in a style that does not inspire confidence; the tone is somewhere between that of a rookie newspaper reporter and that of a game show host. In the second place, the content of the book, which proports to be "social history", is of the caliber of a weak television documentary, barely organized and calculated to entertain. Too be sure, the accouterments of a real historical work are here (notes etc.), but the "You Are There" approach is more appropriate for an eighth grade social studies text than a serious work of history. I suppose that if you are seeking a mildly amusing read that requires little thought or contemplation, this would do. But surely the author, who is a professor of history, is capable of approaching this promising subject with some professionalism. If so, it is not evident here. Don't waste your time.