Politics
“Politics ain’t beanbag,” wrote Chicagoan Finley Peter Dunne at the start of the 20th Century. Chicago politics has a rich and colorful history and the city is an amazing place to participate in the political process.
Web Resources
- City of Chicago, State of Illinois, Chicago Board of Elections – Register to vote, become a deputy registrar or election judge
- Grossman, James R. The Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Clout City Chicago Reader’s Politics Blog
- Clout Street – Tribune’s local political blog
Audio
Harold, A parable of politics and race in America. Episode of radio show This American Life. The story of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, told two decades after his death. Washington died on November 25, 1987.
Books
- Farber, David. Chicago ’68
- Pattillo, Mary. Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City
- Royko, Mike: Boss. One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko
Full List of Books »
- Allen, Danielle S. Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education
- Cohen, Adam and Elizabeth Taylor. American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation
- Einhorn, Robin L. Property Rules: Political Economy in Chicago, 1833-1872
- Farber, David. Chicago ’68
- Goodwin, Joanne L. Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform: Mothers’ Pensions in Chicago, 1911-1929
- Gosnell, Harold Foote. (1937). Machine Politics: Chicago Model.
- Green, Paul M. The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition
- Knight, Louise W. Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy
- Kusch, Frank. Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention
- Lindberg, Richard Carl. To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal: 1855-1960
- Manaster, Kenneth A. Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens
- Mayer, Harold M. Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis
- Pattillo, Mary. Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City
- Ramos-Zayas, Ana Y. National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago
- Royko, Mike: Boss. One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko
- Sautter, R. Craig and Edward M. Burke. Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions, 1860-1996.
- Seligman, Amanda I. Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side
- Simpson, Dick. Rogues, Rebels, and Rubberstamps: The Story of Chicago City Council from the Civil War to the Third Millennium
- Simpson, Vernon. Chicago’s Politics & Society: A Selected Bibliography
- Slayton, Robert A. Back of the Yards: The Making of a Local Democracy
- Smith, Carl. Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman, Second Edition
- Stier, Haya. The Color of Opportunity: Pathways to Family, Welfare, and Work
- Suttles, Gerald D. The Man-Made City: The Land-Use Confidence Game in Chicago
- Wendt, Lloyd, Herman Kogan, and Bette Jore. Big Bill of Chicago
- Wendt, Lloyd, and Herman Kogan. Lords of the Levee
- Wille, Lois. Forever Open, Clear, and Free: The Struggle for Chicago’s Lakefront
