| Big Bill of Chicago Contributor(s): Wendt, Lloyd (Author), Kogan, Herman (Author), Kogan, Rick (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0810123193 ISBN-13: 9780810123199 Publisher: Northwestern University Press OUR PRICE: $19.75 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2005 Annotation: To some he was a humanitarian and builder. Others scorned him as a fake and friend of gangsters with "the carcass of a rhinoceros and the brain of a baboon." This rollicking history traces the rise of William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson, Chicago's famous reform mayor, from his upper class roots to his years as a teenaged cowboy, from his fame as a star athlete to the years as a master politician in a world where the ward boss ruled and whiskey for the voters cost a quarter a shot. Big Bill of Chicago profiles the whole brawling arena of city politics from the turn of the century to the Prohibition Era. It is a primer in the way American politics worked-and works-and a map along the countless winding ways even the dirtiest deal can lead to something great. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Political - History | United States - State & Local - Midwest(ia,il,in,ks,mi,mn,mo,nd,ne,oh,sd,wi - Political Science | American Government - Local |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2005054742 |
| Physical Information: 0.84" H x 6.12" W x 8.66" (1.11 lbs) 400 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1900-1949 - Geographic Orientation - Illinois - Locality - Chicago, Illinois |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Winner of 2006 Illinois State Historical Society Book Award-Certificate of Excellence To some he was a humanitarian and builder. Others scorned him as a fake and friend of gangsters with the carcass of a rhinoceros and the brain of a baboon. This rollicking history traces the rise of William Hale Big Bill Thompson, Chicago's famous reform mayor, from his upper class roots to his years as a teenaged cowboy, from his fame as a star athlete to the years as a master politician in a world where the ward boss ruled and whiskey for the voters cost a quarter a shot. Big Bill of Chicago profiles the whole brawling arena of city politics from the turn of the century to the Prohibition Era. It is a primer in the way American politics worked-and works-and a map along the countless winding ways even the dirtiest deal can lead to something great. |