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An account of the Great Chicago Fire combines archival photographs and drawings with personal accounts by its survivors and historical documents.

"Between October 8-10, 1871, much of the city of Chicago was destroyed by one of the most legendary urban fires in history. Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago had grown at a breathtaking pace in barely three decades, from just over 4,000 in 1840 to greater than 330,000 at the time of the fire. Built hastily, the city was largely made of wood. Once it began in the barn of Catherine and Patrick O'Leary, the fire quickly grew out of control, twice...

A play that deals with the effect that an unexpected, large sum of money has on a poor Black family living on the South Side of Chicago.

"Originally published : New York, N.Y. : Pantheon Books, 1995."--T.p. verso

""The story of the Chicago Defender is the story of race in the twentieth century." -- Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here Giving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed...

Much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to coast journey included a stop there, and this flow of people and commodities made it America's central clearinghouse, laboratory, and factory. And even as Chicago led the way in creating mass-market culture, its artists pushed back in their own distinct voices. Chicago native Thomas Dyja re-creates the story...

Looks at the Chicago fire and its effect on the city, from Mrs. O'Leary's cow, to the water tower.

"Did the Great Chicago Fire really start after a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn? Find out the truth in this addition to the What Was? series. On Sunday, October 8, 1871, a fire started on the south side of Chicago. A long drought made the neighborhood go up in flames. And practically everything that could go wrong did. Firemen first went to the wrong location. Fierce winds helped the blaze jump the Chicago River twice. The Chicago Waterworks...

Chicago, 1871 Deep within the quiet of the night, a city erupts into flames, and a spoiled heiress is soon whisked away. Deborah Sinclair is a beautiful, accomplished young heiress with a staggering dowry. But her fortune does her no good when, one horrible night, Chicago is engulfed in flames. Tom Silver will walk through fire to avenge a terrible injustice-and he may have to. But when he makes Deborah a pawn in his revenge, the heat of...

The story behind the attack that shocked a nation and opened a new chapter in the history of American crime. On July 14th, 1966, Richard Franklin Speck swept through several student nurses' townhouse like a summer tornado and changed the landscape of American crime. He broke in as his helpless victims slept, bound them one by one, and then stabbed, assaulted, and strangled all eight in a sadistic sexual frenzy. By morning, only one young nurse had...