Introduction: Writing an urban biography -- Location, location, location! -- Emporium of the West -- The era of urban chaos -- Reacting to chaos : Pullman, the West Side, and the Loop -- The progressive and not so progressive city -- The immigrant capital and World War I -- Twentieth-century metropolis -- Years of crises : Depression and war -- Chicago after the war : changing times -- Daley's city -- Apocalypse "now" or regeneration? -- Conclusion: Transforming Chicago and America.