City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist

City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago Reviews

• 
  Mara

  The "twelve days of disaster" covered in
  Gary Krist's
  City of Scoundrels begin with a seemingly innocuous blimp test-flight above "the Loop" on July 21, 1919. Curious crowds gathered to behold the dirigible airship, Wingfoot Express, (pictured below, prior to its crash, obviously), and plenty of prominent characters tried to pull strings to go along for the ride.
  
  
  
  
  Ever wondered how they figured out to use helium rather than hydrogen gas by the time they got to the good old Hindenburg (and the Excelsior for that matter)? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that hydrogen is extremely flammable.
  
  
  
  
  It's unclear what the exact cause was, but things went awry, and the fireball of Wingfoot Express came crashing through the skylights of the Illinois Trust Building, chock full of typists and clerks.
  
  
  
  
  As if this "air monster" catastrophe didn't already have the people of the city up in arms (it seemed pretty obvious, in retrospect, that the airspace above a densely populated city might not have been the wisest choice for an experimental flight), on July 22 the parents of six-year-old Janet Wilkinson reported their daughter missing. Immediate suspicion fell on neighborhood creep, John Fitzgerald who had been seen chatting with Janet that day. A JonBenét Ramsey-esque media frenzy ensued in the days before Fitzgerald confessed on July 26. However, things didn't end there.
  
  With reports of other instances of pedophilia and abductions pouring in, the people wanted a solution and wanted one fast. So, the police chief went for somewhat of a sweeping approach, declaring that all "morons, half-wits, and subnormals" be rounded up and arrested.
  
  All the while, Chicago was a veritable tinderbox of racial tension. The spark that ignited it all involved the death of a Black teenager (by drowning after being hit in the head by a rock) who had essentially floated (he was on a raft with friends) too close to what was considered a "whites only" beach area.
  
  
  
  
  And, well, I'll just hand it over to Eric Cartman to announce what ensued...
  
  
  
  
  The city descended into anarchy as the members of whites-only "athletic clubs" roamed the streets on the hunt for anyone on whom they could "exact revenge." Soon it wasn't just the neighborhood toughs involved (arson doesn't exactly require brute strength). Shown below, a group of white children pose proudly outside of an African-American residence they had set aflame.
  
  
  
  
  Newspaper coverage did little to stop the violence, with headlines like Negroes Plan to Kill All Whites and drastically distorted numbers of the numbers of whites being killed being reported- a bias that carried on through the litigation which featured not a single white defendant.
  
  
  
  
  Of course, there is so much that I'm leaving out. Larger than life politicians like Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson, the reporter and, now, famous poet Carl Sandburg, and the woefully under-appreciated Ida B. Wells.
  
  I recommend this to any fans of narrative history, especially if you enjoyed
  The Devil in the White City .
  
  
  Extra Credit Archer Love: (What? it's like a disease...)
  
  
  
  

  Hello airplanes? Yeah it's blimps, you win.

  
  
  
  
  Also of interest:
  Timeline of the "12 Bloody Days" from Chicago Magazine
• 
  Jeanette

  This might not be as interesting to some readers as it was to myself, a girl born on Racine Ave. near Garfield Blvd. It jumps between several 1919 events within Chicago. Parts were intriguing, holding my strong interest. Within other sections, and in other minutia of alliances, mostly of Big Bill Thompson politico, not so much.
  
  Knowing all the locations and logistics made it nearly a 4 star for me. And yet one or two of the premises so centrally highlighted? Well, there was not harmony before, and far less after. There were reasons of economics, survival, health, access to a job, safety of transportation (huge problem in my life twice)why there has not been harmony. People have lost much and some have suffered much. So I really did LOL when I read there was a "Harmony" political party in 1919. Oh, I am not surprised that it never got off the ground either.
  
  But because of how Chicago grew and how business and transportation expanded from 1871 at the time of the fire, to the Great Migration of most Southern Black Americans North- from the diversity of immigrant inputs and huge variance in jobs at different times; well, it's just not a happy camper or peaceful period at any time of its history. That it became worse after this 1919 period, not surprising. Yet Chicago was no staid or calm haven before this either. And far less some decades later.
  
  But I was overjoyed to hear about White City, which my Mother always talked about as her girlhood favorite "day" place. I knew it was decades after the World's Fair and always thought she was exaggerating. But she wasn't. It was there until she was at least 15.
  
  I was surprised that this book connotes a published self-identity and awareness (6 newspapers strong then)changing in 1919. As a lifelong South sider with no ancestor in America or in Chicago before 1917 and most of them coming in 1933- none of us have seen a long period of calm.
  
  Periods of 1960s, 1970s, there were more than four or five times that were at least equal to wars (with war-like action visible for days at a time too, and once for weeks on end) in my lifetime too. North of the Loop and in the Western areas of affluence, Chicagoans hold an entirely different memory, I'm sure. The only reason we ever had to wander North of Marshall Field's was to go to Riverview. And that had to be on 2 cent day and took about 1-1/2 hours on the Western Ave bus.
  
  This book was another look from the outside in. Interesting, well researched, but hardly "the change" it describes.
• 
  Joe

  Picking up on a recent trend - chronicling lesser well known but nonetheless critical historical events - the author focuses on twelve eventful days during the summer of 1919 in Chicago. And what a twelve days it was for the Windy City, including the crash of a blimp in the downtown Loop area, the mysterious disappearance of a 6-year-old girl, a transit workers' strike and several days of race riots. Using just the right mix of newspaper and first-hand accounts, mini-bios of the personalities involved - and this being Chicago, the politics - and enough back-story for context, Krist coherently tells us the story of this almost fortnight of drama.
  
  In July of 1919 World War I had been “concluded” less than a year earlier and the world, country and city were dealing with the Spanish flu pandemic. Nationally Prohibition loomed on the horizon, inflation was running high and labor was frustrated with their post-war wages. President Woodrow Wilson was shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic - "making the world safe for Democracy" and campaigning here for his League of Nations. (Indirectly, the author provides a picture of what was happening as the country transitioned from war to peace mode with no one at the helm - Wilson obsessed with the aforementioned and then subsequently debilitated by a stroke.)
  
  In Chicago, William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson was mayor and he had big, big plans for his beloved city. (If for no other reason, this book is worth the reading just to "get to know" Big Bill - bombastic, flamboyant and wildly corrupt - cartoonish, except he was real - the epitome of the opportunistic politician, if that's not redundant. His political feud with then Governor Frank Lowden - covered in all its adolescent petty detail here - is classic.) And then the twelve days of July 1919 chronicled here happened, putting all "plans" on the back-burner.
  
  The obvious comparison here is to Erik Larson's books. Fair enough, but this is not Devil in the White City - Not a knock, just an observation. City of Scoundrels is more history less mystery, yet is still a fascinating read.
• 
  Blaine DeSantis

  Now this was a fun book for me - even though it covered a very difficult time period: Summer of 1919 in Chicago. First of all a shout out to Carly at LitWit podcast. She did not recommend this book, but another one by Gary Krist and that got me searching the library e-book shelves. They had this book and it was a super enjoyable and fast non-fiction read.
  Set in the summer of 1919 this book documents all that happened that summer: Aviation disaster, race riots, Red scare, child kidnapping, corrupt Mayor running for reelection, etc. Krist is one of this new breed of non-fiction writers who write as if it is a novel. Well written and superbly researched, this is a book for anyone who wants to learn a bit of US history, learn about Chicago, learn about some amazingly colorful figures, learn about the press and just try and recreate all that was happening in Chicago almost 100 years ago. The author does take a quick shot or two at current day Chicago and Illinois politics, but it is 1919 that draws our focus and the vice and corruption that was Chicago at the dawn of the Jazz Age.
  I big thumbs up to this and a great book for those who do not love non-fiction, but who enjoy a good story. One thing about Chicago, it may have been corrupt but it certainly was a very good story!
• 
  Lea

  As a history buff, I really enjoyed this book. The author looks at a series of events that occurred over a two week period in 1919 -- a fiery blimp crash (in downtown Chicago, which seems incredible now), the disappearance of a young girl, a transit strike, and devastating race fueled riots. These events are viewed within the framework of Chicago politics of that time, primarily based on the leadership (or lack thereof) of then mayor "Big Bill" Thompson and his nemesis, governor Frank Lowden.
  
  It was interesting to see how the political machinations of these men, as well as those of their supporters and detractors, affected events in the city. Their one-upmanship added to the chaos of the riots, as well as helping to fuel the transit strike -- it was frustrating and infuriating to read about their lack of concern for Chicago's citizens as they each jockeyed to be the "saviour" in these situations.
  
  I'm always fascinated by history, how events that seem to mark the people of that time so profoundly can be forgotten by future generations. Reading about the Chicago riots of 1919 or the crash of the blimp, Wingfoot Express, I was astounded that I'd never heard of either of these events before picking up this book. Reading
  The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy gave me the same feeling of wonder that we can forget such tragic events that would seem unforgettable.
  
  The lack of a fifth star for this book lies in the fact that there is quite a lot of political analysis here. I found it interesting, but not everyone will. While the author does a good job examining the role of politicians and their actions in influencing events, I would have liked to see maybe a slightly different take on this story, with even more personal details of the common people involved. There were many times when I wished there was just a little more information available, rather than seeing the events only in relation to city politics. Unfortunately, the author can only use the resources at hand, and we certainly have more information on local and national politicians than on people outside the public eye. I can't really fault the author for being unable to provide the details I was longing for, but it was so much more satisfying to me when those perspectives were provided (via diary entries and letters -- perhaps a lesson for us all in the importance of recording our thoughts on current events!).
  
  Highly Recommend.
• 
  Lynn

  2.5 stars. The premise of this book is that there were 12 horrible days in 1919 in Chicago that utterly transformed the city and gave rise to modern Chicago. During those 12 days a Goodyear blimp crashed through a bank skylight, killing people on the ground and some of its passengers, a young girl went missing and was later found dead, there was a race riot and a crippling transit strike.
  
  Overseeing all this was a larger than life Mayor, William Thompson and the Governor of Illinois, Frank Lowden. The fact that these two men hated each other and worked at crossed purposes did not help the city during its time of greatest need. Thompson had a Svengali like character by his side, Fred Lundin, who was really the brains behind a lot of his schemes. Although Thompson did do some things that were good for Chicago, his overriding interest was always "What's in it for me?" I have to say that the more I read about Mayor Thompson, the more he reminded me of the current resident of the White House, and not in a good way.
  
  Most of the book is focused on the 12 days in July that give rise to the disasters. There is a section prior to this that focuses on the rise of William Thompson. I get why it is necessary, but it is dry as a bone. The sections about the "days of disaster" are much more interesting, but they can be very confusing as the narrative jumps from one disaster to the next. The descriptions of the riots are just horrific at times.
  
  By the time you get to the end of the book, you are waiting for the author to explain how those "12 days of disaster" led to modern Chicago. He does this in one paragraph. One paragraph! Really! At the end of the book. And his explanation is really lame.
  
  Another ding is the inclusion of Emily Frankenstein and her romantic dramas. I have no idea why he spent so much time telling us about her. She added nothing to the narrative, and had no connection to any of the events. She was just there. For no reason.
  
  The book gives an interesting snapshot of Chicago in the summer of 1919 and what politics and life was like back then. There is no keen insight as promised by the subtitle as to how what happened then gave rise to "modern " Chicago. The writing is quite dry with only a few flashes of creativity every so often. I doubt I'd read a book by this author again. If you compare this to Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, this would lose miserably.
• 
  Jill Hutchinson

  When we think of Chicago, that "city of big shoulders", in the early part of the 20th century, our first thoughts are Al Capone, bootlegging, and shootouts in the street. But prior to the rise of organized crime was the original organized crime of the city's government under "Big Bill" Thompson and incidents that set the tone for things to come in Chicago. This book basically covers the year 1919, especially twelve days in which the city came as near to destroying itself as it ever would.
  
  It all started with the explosion and crash of a prototype blimp in the downtown Loop, killing and injuring crowds gathered to watch the airship gliding peacefully over the city. Then came the transit strike which paralyzed all public transportation and race riots on a scale not seen before. All this was tearing the city apart while the mayor and his political cronies sat back and plotted what political advantages they could make from the crisis. It was old Chicago politics at its worst and reached into every department of city and state government. A very interesting biography of not only the ineffective and corrupt government but also of a rising metropolis trying to find its way in the overall scheme of things. Recommended.
• 
  Sean O

  This was an excellent book. Weaving the tale of the 12 days in the summer of 1919 where four different tragedies plunged Chicago into a crisis of character.
  
  I thought the book was really good and full of great history, but the last third of the book becomes a political biography of William Hale Thompson, an outsize and corrupt politician that somehow gets a pass because he spouted a lot of pro-Chicago boosterism.
  
  The direction of the last third of the book really bothered me, and I lost interest and my review lost a star.
  
  The remainder of the book is one of my favorite types of history books: normal people doing important things in challenging times.
  
  If you can live with a slightly positive portrait of Thompson, you’ll love this book. I can’t, so it only got four stars.
• 
  Becky

  I really enjoyed this book, mostly for the look back at Chicago at time that I am very unfamilar. One thing that I liked was that I could indirectly relate to this book, through my relatives who lived on Chicago's south side during that time. My grandmother was born on the south side in March of that very year, so her family would have been aware, if not witness, to some of the things happening, specifically the race riots that engulfed the south side. I'm a big history buff and if I can find some kind of personal connection to events in history, that makes it even more interesting to me. Growing up and living in the Chicago suburbs, I never knew of many of the events discussed in this book - the Wingfoot Express disaster, the murder of Janet Wilkinson, specifically. I enjoyed that Krist made it a personal story, recounting everyday Chicagoans experiences of those times, as opposed to writing a detached view of those events, he made it more relatable by including those people.
  May 8, 2014: had a desire to re-read this one again. In the mood for some Chicago history.
• 
  Pamela W

  I'm dying to read this. Having just moved FROM Chicago after 20 years, this just sounds like a typical week to me.
• 
  Siria

  The subtitle of City of Scoundrels is rather misleading: while several of the figures involved in the "12 Days of Disaster" that took place in Chicago in the summer of 1919 certainly helped to shape that city in profound ways, Gary Krist doesn't really prove that those twelve days in particular were some sort of formative moment or systemic break. Really, the events described here are a kind of microcosm that bring together several different aspects of the history of early twentieth-century America. From blimp crashes in the Loop to race riots, child abductions to bare-faced political corruption, Krist documents moments that reveal a lot about the history of power, race, and technology in Chicago that stood on the verge of the Roaring Twenties. Read City of Scoundrels for that "snapshot in time" feel, but not for something bigger than that.
• 
  George

  A VERY INTERESTING AND MASTERFULLY TOLD TALE.
  
  
  “At 11:59 P.M. on Monday, June 30, [1919] every saloon, tavern, and beer hall in Chicago was filled to bursting. Men—and more than a few women—were packed three to ten deep at every bar, with long lines of would-be patrons snaking out into the beer-soaked streets.” “At midnight, wartime Prohibition would go into effect, and the entire city would be dry.”—page 114
  
  The start of the Jazz Age, the beginning of Prohibition, a time of nascent Machine Politics, an aviation disaster, a race riot, a crippling transit strike, and a sensational child murder—what’s not to like about CITY OF SCOUNDRELS: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago, by Gary Krist. Well researched history and sociology that reads like a novel… but more interesting.
  
  Recommendation: A must read for history, culture, politics and/or city crazies. From State Street to the stockyards, Chicago is my kind of town.
  
  “Deputy Chief Alcock, under enormous pressure, decided to take action. ‘I have ordered the arrest of all half-wits and subnormals, because they are a danger to every woman and girl in the city,’ he announced to reporters. ‘They are responsible for almost all the attacks that are reported to the police, and they should have been rounded up long ago and sent to institutions where they can be cared for.’ ”—page 151
  
  
  NOOKbook edition, 363 pages
• 
  Jane

  If you want evidence that things haven’t changed all that much in the great state of Illinois, read City of Scoundrels by Gary Krist. It’s a work of nonfiction covering July 21 to August 1, 1919 in Chicago.
  
  A lot happened during those 12 days, more than I ever learned in school. The book opens with a prologue covering the crash of a blimp named the Wingfoot Express. The airship flew over the city several times on July 21. It took flight for the last time at 4:50 pm with five passengers. As it crossed State Street and the city’s central district, it caught fire; baseball fans at Comiskey Park south of downtown watched the flames erupt. As the passengers plummeted from the burning airship, it crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.
  
  The author spends a lot of time covering Chicago’s mayor, the colorful William Hale Thompson. The last Republican mayor of Chicago, he was known as Big Bill and is considered one of the most unethical mayors of all time. His relationship with Governor Frank Lowden was contentious and seems to have contributed to some of the city’s biggest problems during the summer of 1919. Still, Krist credits Thompson’s corrupt and wasteful administration with helping turn 21st-century Chicago into “perhaps the most architecturally distinguished and physically impressive city in the Americas.”
  
  The problems that summer included racial unrest and bombings, race riots, a transit strike, and the frightening disappearance of a six-year-old girl. Krist’s quotations from newspapers of the day make it clear that claims that the press used to be unbiased are wishful thinking.
  
  One thing that I did not expect to find in City of Scoundrels was multiple references to Galesburg’s own Carl Sandburg. Hired by Chicago Daily News editor Henry Justin Smith to be a labor reporter, he comes across as one of the good guys, fighting for the underdog and spotlighting the rights of the black soldiers recently returned from fighting for the U.S. in the Great War. Krist quotes from Sandburg’s poem “Hoodlums,” written in Chicago on July 29, 1919, and calls it “a powerful indictment of the senseless anger he was seeing all around him.”
  
  City of Scoundrels is meticulously footnoted, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a fascinating look at Chicago – and the United States – of 100 years ago.
  
• 
  Paul Pessolano

  “City of Scoundrels” by Gary Krist, published by Crown Publishers.
  
  Category – History
  
  What can one say about Chicago? A city that has been plagued by political scandal since the 1900’s, but has maintained its image of a modern and vibrant city.
  
  “City of Scoundrels” is a story of just twelve days in 1919 that shows both the rotten and good side of this teeming metropolis. The story begins with the crash of the blimp, “Wingfoot Express”, continues through the search for a missing child, continues through a transit strike, and ends with a race riot that put the city under martial law.
  During all of this two political rivals, Big Bill Thompson (Mayor of Chicago) and Frank O. Lowden (Governor of Chicago) lock horns in a battle to forward their own agendas.
  
  The book leaves no doubt that the oil that keeps Chicago running, then and now, is political favoritism doled out in both jobs and money.
  The book also leaves no doubt that many problems that came out of these twelve days was largely due to misinformation that came not only from people on the street but by the many Chicago newspapers.
  
  The riot, that was due to racial unrest, was fueled by the number of people reported murdered and the ghastly stories (all untrue) of the mayhem in the streets.
  
  A very concise and well written history of 1900’s Chicago, stories that not too many people are aware of, including native Chicagoans. A history book that is not only easy to read but very informative.
  
  
  
• 
  Susan in NC

  Everything I like my popular history to be - entertaining, well-researched and informative, this book focuses on the disastrous events over 12 days in July of 1919 that brought parts of Chicago to a standstill.
  
  Krist does an excellent job of setting the stage by giving readers a pithy, concise profile of Mayor William Hale Thompson, aka “Big Bill”, and the political machine he controlled. I was fascinated by the cynical prevalence of populism in Thompson’s reign, and the modern parallels I see in today’s national political scene. Thompson came from a wealthy background, but affected a cowboy hat and styled himself the champion of the working classes, all the while attacking the press and his political enemies with equal fervor, while presiding over his corrupt administration. Thompson seemed to truly love the city and its people, championing the ambitious Chicago Plan to beautify the city and turn it into a world class destination, but his desire above all was to remain in power and politically viable - his main motivation throughout all the crisis events of that brutal summer, and in the fallout that followed.
  
  The first crisis was the crash of a dirigible into a bank in the business district, raining down fire on the employees below. Devastating as that was, the following days would see a little girl disappear and be found, murdered, in a coal cellar; a race riot erupt on a sweltering South Side beach, and rage for four days before National Guard troops were called in to calm the situation, and a transit strike cripple the city.
  
  In the aftermath, blame would be passed around as citizens called for responsibility to be apportioned, and politicians would squabble among themselves, trying to spin the crises to their advantage, despite the devastation and shocking death toll.
  
  My two main takeaways, as a native Chicagoan who didn’t know about these events, was that politics are truly cyclical - the more they change, the more they stay the same; politicians will always cynically spin and manipulate situations. Secondly, I better understand the racial animus I sensed among some adults as I was growing up on the South Side of Chicago - turns out, the roots of the racial strife go deep into the past.
  
  I really enjoyed this book about the events of the summer of 1919 in Chicago, it helped me better understand my hometown and learn more about it. I enjoy the author’s crisp, entertaining and informative writing style, and look forward to reading more of his books.
• 
  Christine

  From July 21st through August 1st, 1919 Chicago was a city of turmoil. This non-fiction account of that time reads like a good historical fiction novel, but as the author states in the forward all the events are factual and no dialogue is invented. Mr. Krist draws from public record, newspaper accounts and personal diaries to piece together what happened during those 12 days. On a calm and comfortable Monday afternoon the Wingfoot Express blimp exploded over the city sending burning debris (and bodies) crashing into a bank. While the city mourns the 13 tragic deaths from the explosion a 6-year-old girl goes missing starting the hunt for a dangerous pedophile. Already reeling, Chicagoans also witness the very public suicide of a judge, suffer through a transit strike and endure the infamous race riots.
  
  Mr. Krist chronicles these events in order and intersperses the narrative with excerpts from political documents outlining the conflict between mayor “Big Bill” Thompson and Governor Lowden, readings from the diary of a debutante in love with an unsuitable young man and various other personal and public documents. This allows the reader a glimpse into the gritty politics and racial tensions of the city and the feelings of citizens affected by what was going on around them.
  
  Mr. Krist’s writing is never dry and the book moves along without a hitch to make it an enjoyable read. If textbooks were written in this manner, students would be lining up to take history classes. While it may be a positive for other readers, if I had to make a negative comment I would be that, for this reader, the narrative was a little heavy on the politics.
  
• 
  Wanda

  I was not engaged in this short history. I did not find the writing to be particularly compelling. The best written part concerned the dirigible disaster, otherwise it was pretty tired and thin. Not much more to say on the matter.
• 
  Jeff

  I had high hopes for City of Scoundrels, and while I enjoyed it overall, my hopes dropped faster than a Goodyear gasbag. Based on the title, subtitle, and jacket description, I expected this to be, primarily, a review of a series of events with about equal attention given to each, perhaps with a packaged summary and reflection of their impact at the end. Instead, the book is mostly a biography of Mayor William Hale Thompson.
  
  I can’t decide how I’m supposed to feel about Thompson, built up in the first half of the book as a deceitful villain, but revealed in the second half to be a savior of the city, who eventually loses, then wins, then loses again. I am told that he is dishonest, conniving, and a buffoon, but also that he is elected to his office three times—including after the tragedies that unfold in the 12 days of the sutbtitle.
  
  Then there’s those 12 days. I couldn’t tell you now with any certainty which days on the calendar were the 12 in the title. The first chapter is day one, but the next chapter goes back in time to “Big Bill’s” first election, then forward again to give a thorough telling of all 365 days of 1919. Wrap it up with some of days of 1920 and beyond, and there is my confusion.
  
  Krist does a great job with the story he tells, and it was a lot of fun (as much as race riots, murder, mechanical disaster, and politics can be), it just wasn’t what it was set up to be. My next step is to read some of the reviews by others, to help me understand this book the way it was meant to be understood. Hopefully I am just missing connections and reading what someone else has to say will make the light come on for me.
  
  As a history of Chicago, City of Scoundrels is valuable, presenting some little-known events and characters in the city's story, as well as mentioning some of the big ones with which we are all familiar. I would recommend it, just don't put too much weight into the words on the cover.
• 
  Randee

  I was sitting at my aunt's and uncles living room waiting for dinner to be announced, I began reading the Chicago Field Museum magazine, in which my Aunt and Uncle were members. i was turning pages rapidly when I stopped on a page where there was a young , 14 year old that looked like he could have been my Uncle Al's twin when my uncle was young. I checked the kid out and he had the name last name and my uncle and pop. Curious-er. and curious-er. No one in the family...not my aunts/uncles/my parents/grandparents, etc. had never breathed a word of this story. And what a story it is! On July 21, 1919, Goodyear began running an experimental blimp run from Grant Park to various spots in downtown Chicago for a type of thrilling sightseeing excursions. The first two of the day went off as planned. The third trip, shortly after the blimp had passed State Street caught fire and plummeted ablaze through the skylights of the Illinois State Bank. Several crew members were killed and even more bank employees were burned alive. My uncle's father youngest brother was one of them He was 14 and worked as a bank messenger. This was the first air disaster to ever take place in Chicago. It was also the kick off of 2 weeks of disasters that I found to be interesting. Political corruption, race riots, transportation strikes. abducted, murdered kids by pedophiles. Nothing has really changed.
  
• 
  Carole

  Krist is a good story teller and specializes in narrative history. He focuses on a few characters as the basis of a tapestry centering on a series of disasters that rocked the city of Chicago in the summer of 1919. This included a spectacular aviation accident, racial upheaval, a massive transit strike, and the disappearance and murder of a small child. A populist governor (whose eyebrow-raising maneuvers strike a familiar current tone) deals with the issues both in a direct and underhanded way. Krist creates a rich depiction of place and time. It is thoroughly researched and full of telling and colorful detail and context. Readers who enjoyed The Devil on White City might like this as a follow-up.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Meg

  I have lived in Chicago my whole life, but I hadn't heard of many of these disasters. I do feel that the title was misleading, because so much of the book was about Mayor Bill Thompson and his elections and agenda. I also wished they would have talked more about the Eastland Disaster. It was mentioned twice, but only a single sentence each time, while other disasters had almost unbelievable detail. I understand this didn't fall under the 12 days of disaster, but it still happened when Bill Thompson was mayor and it was the largest loss of life shipwreck ever on the Great Lakes (844 people drowned while it was still docked in the Chicago River!).
  
  I appreciate learning more (the good and not-so-good) about my home-town, but I would probably only recommend this to history buffs.
• 
  Tabitha Krug

  (audiobook) It was nice to learn some history of Chicago, but the book had a strange pace. It started with the very exciting airship crash, then the next 1/4 of the book was just about the boring mayoral race. Horrifying account of the race riots--in some ways it seemed so different from today (when some politicians started suggesting, in response to the riots, that some segregation laws might be beneficial to the city), but in other ways it seemed too familiar (despite there being more black victims and more white rioters/murderers, most of the men initially put on trial were black).
• 
  John Yingling

  4.5 stars
  It seemed, as I was reading this book, that it could have been about the present-day: political corruption and backstabbing, racism, corporations looking out for themselves, unions going on strike, and child murder. It's a history told extremely well by the author as a series of stories, and each one is almost worthy of a book. All in all, it's another slice of history that I didn't know anything about, and now I'm glad that I do.
• 
  Kristin

  Really wanted to like this more than I did, but I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Some parts were interesting, but I skipped through a lot of the last section. And I had no clue why the author included the whole story of Emily Frankenstein. It seemed so out of place, and didn’t add a whole lot to the premise that 12 days of disaster that changed Chicago forever.
• 
  Pamela

  Timely reading these days.
• 
  Juli!~

  Not confident this book had a thesis. Title is unrelated to book content.
• 
  Dachokie

  Second City Mayhem ...
  
  This book was reviewed as part of Amazon's Vine program which included a free advance copy of the book.
  
  More often than not, the city of Chicago always seems to take a back seat to all things New York and Los Angeles. With his CITY OF SCOUNDRELS, author Gary Krist details an eerie 12-day period of time in July 1919 when the "Second City" almost imploded following a series of subsequent disasters. Chock full of details and told in manner that gives readers an eye-witness perspective at street level, CITY OF SCOUNDRELS sheds light on how the nation's second largest city survived a momentary descent into the darkness of total chaos.
  
  Amid the sweltering heat of July in 1919, simmering tensions beneath the city's bustle and relative calm were brought to a head by a bizarre, chain-reaction of calamitous events: an aerial disaster, the murder of a child, a massive transit strike and one of the worst race-riots in the American history. Making matters worse, the city's leadership at the time was deeply embroiled in its own political turmoil.
  
  Krist takes readers on a progressive whirlwind tour of simultaneous, escalating events without losing focus in the process. Starting with the crash/explosion of a blimp, he uses the event to segue into the fragile racial balance that has been rocked by numerous bombings. With the blimp crash and racial issues still fresh in our minds, he introduces us to the disappearance and subsequent murder of a child that creates even more public outrage. As these intial small crises begin to build, Krist reminds us that in the background, the city is run by a stereotypical fat-cat mayor, William "Big Bill" Thompson, whose political goals often come at the expense of his constituents. Krist details the unholy matrimony that exists between Thompson and an erudite, political puppet-master, Fred Lundin, as well as their plans to use Chicago as Thompson's stepping-stone to the US Presidency. With the fires of the blimp crash, crumbling race-relations and the nonsensical murder of a child smoldering in our minds, we are reminded of the ill-effects Prohibition was having on Chicago, as well as its struggle to recover from a war-time economy. With all components already in place for the perfect storm, a mass transit strike occurs only to be followed by a race-related murder that sparks a one of the nation's worst race riots. The worst case scenario has occurred and the mayor is "asleep at the wheel." As the rage within the city slowly begins to lose steam (with the unrequested assistance of the Illinois State militia), the city manages to survive the storm, but political careers are forever damaged.
  
  I found CITY OF SCOUNDRELS both educational and lively, mainly due to the manner in which it was written. Gary Krist deftly outlines a wide-range of events with crisp detail (enough to generate the feeling of seeing them first-hand), but the reader never gets lost in the story. I feel this can be attributed to the author's knack of returning to each event in a timely manner and coherently managing to tie them all together. I was left with feeling that no story was left untold and each storyline had closure. I also appreciate the way CITY OF SCOUNDRELS made me take an interest in a period of time that I previously felt no particular desire to explore ... the 12 days of labor that contributed to the birth of modern Chicago.