City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America

Written 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490631417

Donald L. Miller

Donald L. Miller is the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History Emeritus at Lafayette College and author of ten books, including Vicksburg, and Masters of the Air, currently being made into a television series by Tom Hanks. He has hosted, coproduced, or served as historical consultant for more than thirty television documentaries and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.

Reviews for City of the Century

[knightlight777 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very comprehensive history of this remarkable city from its origin to around the turn of the 19th century. I grew up about 80 miles north this city in Wisconsin and also took my first job there out of college. We did not mix well. Chicago's history is dizzying in its twists and turns and dynamic transitions, all captured well here in this narrative by Donald Miller.From its start, an Indian word meaning either striped skunk or stinking onions, take your pick, Chicago became a city that embodied the can do get it done spirit of this country. Right up to the great fire and battles in the streets of the emerging labor movement it never backed down from reinventing itself. A good book to get immersed in this rich history and what Carl Sandberg most aptly characterized as "the city of big shoulders." That it certainly is.

[rbtanger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Long in the shadow of New York City, Chicago has struggled to carve a place in the American conscious. City of The Century, never boring, staid or repetitive, is the antidote. Much more fasinating than Erik Larson's over-rated Devil In The White City, City of The Century provides a complete picture of Chicago from the early days of swampy, wetlands settlement to the advent of the Board of Trade. Just like the city of its title, this books is fulfilling and unpretentious.