About this book:

From the wild-onion marshes of the Potawatomi to the roaring twenty‑first‑century lakefront, this book sweeps through centuries of ambition, disaster, and reinvention in America’s most restless metropolis.

Discover how a muddy portage at the edge of Lake Michigan became a continental crossroads—opening the way for French fur traders, immigrant waves, railroad barons, fiery ruin, and defiant skyscraper rebirth. Follow the people who forged the city: indigenous nations, laborers and architects, blues musicians and mayors, reformers and machine politicians, all chasing—and sometimes clashing over—the promise of Chicago’s streets.

More than a chronicle, this is a vivid portrait of a city that never stops remaking itself, inviting readers to see their own urban world, and America itself, through the unmistakable lens of Chicago.