Big Bill of Chicago (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780810123199)

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.

Author: Lloyd Wendt,Herman Kogan
ISBN-10: 0810123193
ISBN-13: 9780810123199
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2005
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 8.66h x 6.12w x 0.84d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/15/2005 pg. 95