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Chicago has been called the ´most American of cities´and the ´great American city´. Not the biggest or the most powerful; neither the richest, prettiest nor 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. It began as a trading post, which grew into a market for the east to purchase the goods of the west, sprouting the still-largest rail interchange in America. As people began to trade virtual representations of those goods - futures - the city became a centre of ?nance and law. And as people studied the city´s growth and its economy, it became a nucleus of intellect, with the University of Chicago´s pioneering sociologists shaping how cities at home and abroad would come to understand themselves.
Whet Moser´s book reveals how the city grew into a metropolis over its social, urban, cultural and sometimes scandalous history. He also traces the development of and current changes in its neighbourhoods: Chicago is famous for them, and infamous for the segregation between them. Moser takes readers from the very beginnings of the city as an idea, a vision in the minds of its ?rst explorers, to the global city it has become - and offers a local´s perspective on the best and most interesting aspects of Chicago to visitors today.

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