About this item

Chicago has been called the "most American of cities" and the "great American city." Not the biggest or the most powerful, nor the richest, prettiest, or best, but the most American. How did it become that? And what does it even mean? At its heart, Chicago is America's great hub. And in this book, Chicago magazine editor and longtime Chicagoan Whet Moser draws on Chicago's social, urban, cultural, and often scandalous history to reveal how the city of stinky onions grew into the great American metropolis it is today. Chicago began as a trading post, which grew into a market for goods from the west, sprouting the still-largest rail hub in America. As people began to trade virtual representations of those goods - futures - the city became a hub of finance and law.