City of the Century

The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America

By: Donald L. Miller

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

The epic of Chicago is the story of the emergence of modern America. Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900. Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects - which included the reversal of the Chicago River and raising the entire city from prairie mud to save it from devastating cholera epidemics. The saga of Chicago's unresolved struggle between order and freedom, growth and control, capitalism and community, remains instructive for our time, as we seek ways to build and maintain cities that retain their humanity without losing their energy. City of the Century throbs with the pulse of the great city it brilliantly brings to life.

©1996 Donald L. Miller (P)2014 Recorded Books

Descriptive and inspiring

The author’s account of 19th century Chicago is a great introduction to the history of the city and I’d highly recommend this book to be read first if you want a history overview of Chicago’s beginnings. The narrator is also entertaining to listen to (his accents are humorous to listen to) and delivers a quality listening experience to listeners.

Now I want to go to Chicago

This is a really long book. You can take it in sections. So much interesting info and a great complement to Devil in the White City.

Excellent

Well researched and presented. A must read for all urban planners and Chicagoans. Highly recommended.

How a modern city is built

Very interesting listening to the rise of a modern city from a swamp to one of the largest cities in America. Most of the book is a structural overview of the systems and people who made Chi. The last few hours were really thought provoking when the author went into the conditions of the street people and how things were going down. Gives a clearer picture of the time and themes of the play Chicago.

Epic tale of the rise of Chicago

Amazing book. So much depth of research on Chicago’s origin story from a swamp to the White City and city of skyscrapers. It gives in depth portraits of the flawed cast of characters that pushed Chicago forward. Fascinating descriptive portraits of major events such as the great Fire , the Colombian exposition, the haymarket riot, the development of skyscrapers, the underworld, and countless other stories. I would have liked some more info on the native people of the area before Chicago but that is nitpicking. The narrator was a bit of a distraction, would have liked someone that was a little more Chicago and someone that narrated with some better effect and appropriate transitions. But in the end, he didn’t subtract that much from the book thankfully