Customer Reviews

First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt: Homicide in Chicago, 1875 - 1920

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

 

 

The rebuilding of Chicago after the fire of 1871, was the beginning of a new era and influx of immigrants into the US largest cities. Skilled trades were being streamlined into factory assembly line work. The entertainment industry was still a pasttime of the elite. The abundant supply of corner bars met the demand of the male factory worker demographic. Adler gathers all of the sociological factors of this time period and defines the trends that he found when cross matching time period, socioeconomic status and ethnic background. There is even further analysis based on the time frame of how long an immigrant resided in the US prior to commiting his crime. One murderer was acquitted based on the arguement that he was abiding by the rules of "the old country". It was a fascinating read and made me hungry for more.

Chicago's reputation as a danger zone did not begin with the machinegun-toting gangsters of the Twenties. Jeffrey S. Adler's book proves that the husky, brawling "City of Big Shoulders" was the most violent urban center in the United States long before Al Capone and Bugs Moran went to war.

"First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt" is a study of Chicago homicide between 1875 and 1920. After analyzing over six thousand murder cases, Adler presents conclusions demonstrating how immigration, poverty, industrialization, and other social factors affected not only the levels but also the types of violence.

According to Adler, drunken brawls were a major cause of violent death during the 1875-1890 period. Poor, single men relied on physical aggression to attain elevated status among their peers, with sometimes deadly results. When saloon culture waned and these men married, the domestic sphere became the new proving ground for their masculine identities. Spousal homicides rose when abusive husbands reacted to defiance by murdering their wives, and battered women used deadly force to protect themselves. Levels and types of violence were also affected by immigration and racial factors, as evidenced by the Black Hand terrorism and race riots.

For me, the book's well-researched arguments made it a worthy read, but a word of caution to those whose tastes run toward lighter fare: this is not an anthology of murder stories like Lesy's "Murder City". There are a few case studies put forward to bolster Adler's conclusions, but "First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt" is primarily a sociological text, emphasizing statistics and trends more than case and killer profiles. There aren't even any photographs except on the cover, although there are charts and graphs aplenty.

If it were ever possible to make sense out of violence, Adler has come the closest to doing so.