Sensing Chicago: Noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers

185 Pages·2015·2.097 MB·English

by  Adam Mack

SenSing
ChiCago
Studies in Sensory History
Series Editor
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina
Series Editorial Board
Martin A. Berger, University of California at Santa Cruz
Constance Classen, Concordia University
William A. Cohen, University of Maryland
gabriella M. Petrick, new York University
Richard Cullen Rath, University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa
A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.
SenSi ng
ChiCago
noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers
AdAM MACk
University of Illinois Press
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
© 2015 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Mack, Adam, 1973–
Sensing Chicago : noisemakers, strikebreakers,
and muckrakers / Adam Mack.
pages cm. — (Studies in sensory history)
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03918-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-252-08075-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-252-09722-5 (e-book)
1. Chicago (ill.)—History—19th century.
2. Chicago (ill.)—History—20th century. 3. Senses
and sensation—illinois—Chicago—History—19th
century. 4. Senses and sensation—illinois—
Chicago—History—20th century. 5. Chicago
(ill.)—Social conditions—19th century. 6. Chicago
(ill.)—Social conditions—20th century. i. Title.
F548.3.M19 2015
977.3’1103--dc23 2014042404
To my mom and dad
Chicago. name from an indian word variously
translated as “garlic,” “skunk,” or “wild onion.”
—from Illinois Place Names (1989)
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
introduction 1
1 Smelling Civic Peril: The Chicago Styx 11
2 Sensory Overload: The Chicago Fire, 1871 33
3 To Quiet the Roar of the Mob:
george M. Pullman’s Model Town 51
4 A Revolutionary and a Puritan:
Upton Sinclair and The Jungle 71
5 Sensory Refreshment: The Other White City 95
notes 113
Bibliography 143
index 157
Illustrations follow page 50

aCknowledgments
it’s a pleasure to thank the many people who helped me prepare this book.
i owe an enormous debt to the School of the Art institute of Chicago
(SAiC), a vibrant artistic and intellectual community that serves as my
institutional home in the Windy City. At SAiC i have benefited from the
guidance and generosity of two department chairs, Paul Ashley and Raja
Halwani. The administration has been equally supportive and helpful. i
thank the dean of faculty, Lisa Wainwright, for her enthusiastic response
to my work and for the Faculty enrichment grant that made finishing it
much easier than it would have been otherwise. The extraordinary admin-
istrative staff at the Liberal Arts department, especially Shay degrandis
and Teena McClelland, have helped me with just about everything related
to the management of my research and teaching. SAiC’s Computer Re-
sources and information Technologies service kept my data secure and
saved me—more than once—from terrifying computer malfunctions of
my own making.
The students in my classes have provided encouragement and advice,
reminding me of the value of broadly accessible scholarship. A coincidence
of my arrival at SAiC is that my predecessor, the late george H. Roeder Jr.,
issued one of the original calls for a sensorial history of American life. My
hope is that Sensing Chicago speaks to the growing scholarship on sensory
history in productive ways and that my colleagues and students at SAiC
will find it an intriguing approach to Chicago’s past and present.