Episodes

  • Organized Crime in Chicago: A Short History

    Organized Crime in Chicago: A Short History
    Jun 21 2024
    Chicago is always associated with the Mafia boss Al Capone. But what is the real history of organized crime in the city? When did it begin? What social and economic forces helped it grow? And how did machine politicians, in alliance with gangsters like Al Capone, shape the city? In this episode, we dissect the connections between vice and politics in the city from its origins to the present with two expert guests: retired Chicago Police Officer and Professor of Criminology Robert Lombardo (Loyola University) and author and expert on Jewish gangs in Chicago Professor Joe Kraus (University of Scranton). Topics include the origins of vice in the Levy District, the early connections between politicians and criminal activity, the Black Hand, Jewish gangs, Prohibition, and the evolution of the Italian Mafia from its early days as the Capone Syndicate through the emergence of the Outfit.
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Meatpacking in Chicago and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906)

    Meatpacking in Chicago and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906)
    Jun 14 2024
    No industry shaped Chicago more decisively than the meatpacking industry, and no book exposed the rapacious, exploitative and vicious character of the meatpacking industry more than Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906). In this episode, we explore the origins and explosive growth of the meatpacking industry, the brutal working conditions on the bloody killing floors, the emergence of literature about Chicago in the early 1900s, the importance of Lithuanians in Chicago history, the life of Upton Sinclair, his urban realist and naturalist writing style, and his political ideas as seen in The Jungle. Our expert guests are historian Dr. Dominic Pacyga, co-founder of Chicago's Packingtown Museum, and novelist Dr. Douglas Cowie, creator of the Literature of Chicago Course at Royal Holloway, University of London. Visit the Packingtown Museum, voted the best small museum in Chicago. More information is available here: https://www.packingtownmuseum.org/
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Chicago: The Midwest's Queer Metropolis

    Chicago: The Midwest's Queer Metropolis
    Jun 7 2024
    Happy Pride Month! We celebrate with an episode about Queer Chicago featuring two historians of Queer History, Owen Keehnen and Timothy Stewart-Winter. Topics include the following: -The difficulties of accessing Queer history since it was repressed and marginalized for so long -The recovery and reclamation of Queer history -Early Gay cultures in the Levy District -The Society for Human Rights, which was the first Gay rights organization in the US, founded in Chicago by Henry Gerber in 1924 -The influence of the German writer and thinker Magnus Hirschfeld on Gay culture in Chicago -The special historical role of Chicago as the Midwestern Queer city, which differentiates it from the more well-known Gay cities of New York and San Francisco -The repeal of anti-sodomy laws by the Illinois in 1961, the first state to do so -Chicago's Human Rights Ordinance of 1988, which formally protected the Queer community from discrimination -Black Queer Chicago -Lesbian Chicago -The AIDS crisis -The Belmont Rocks and the AIDS Garden Check out Owen's Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/owenkeehnen/
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Literature of Chicago #7: Studs Terkel, Historian of the People

    Literature of Chicago #7: Studs Terkel, Historian of the People
    May 24 2024
    In our third episode celebrating Jewish American History Month for the ChicagoHamburg30 Sister-City Anniversary podcast, we turn to the career of Studs Terkel. Studs was the child of Russian Jewish immigrants, a Pultizer-Prize winning author, and a celebrated oral historian. He became the voice of Chicago over his lengthy career as a radio host. The conversation touches on many themes, including his seminal work, _Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do_ (1974) and _Division Street: America_ (1967). Our expert guests are Peter T. Alter, Chief Historian at the Chicago History Museum and Director of the Studs Terkel Oral History Center. Mark Larson is an oral historian and author of Working in the 21st Century: An Oral History of American Work in a Time of Social and Economic Transformation (2024). You can buy Mark Larson's books here: https://rb.gy/ajivqf Don't forget to visit the Chicago History Museum's research materials here: https://www.chicagohistory.org/ And you can listen to the Studs Terkel Radio Archive here: https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/
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    56 mins
  • Literature of Chicago #6: Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

    Literature of Chicago #6: Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
    May 10 2024
    "I am an American, Chicago born—-Chicago, that somber city-—and go at things as I have taught myself, freestyle, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent." -The opening lines of The Adventures of Augie March (1953) In this episode celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month, Douglas Cowie and Riley Moore (Royal Holloway, U. of London) discuss The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, the most decorated American author, who won three National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, as well as the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Bellow was a 'dreamer,' for he was a Jewish immigrant who entered the United States illegally with his parents as a chid. The Bellows settled in Chicago where Saul was raised. As an undocumented migrant, he could not enlist in the army during World War II despite his desire to join the war effort, and this disappointment influenced much of his writing. In this show, our expert guests discuss the connections between Bellow's life and the life of Augie March as well as the unique authorial style of Bellow. They also assess the claim that Augie March is the Great American Novel.
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    57 mins
  • Jewish Chicago: City of Opportunity

    Jewish Chicago: City of Opportunity
    May 3 2024
    Happy Jewish American Heritage Month! In this episode, we explore the rich and complex history of Jewish Chicago, from the 1850s to the present. Topics include the following: -the first Jewish settlers and politicians in Chicago -the influence of German high-culture and Enlightenment philosophy on German Jews in Chicago -the formation of Jewish regimental companies in the Civil War -the second wave of Jewish immigrants and the tensions between establishment Jews and the new arrivals -World War I and the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 -Prohibition and the rise of the Jewish gangster -the role of Word War II and the Holocaust in unifying the disparate Jewish communities -protests against the German American Bund -the transformation of the suburb of Lawndale into German Jewish "Deutschland" -further immigration trends from the post-Soviet nations as well as Israel Throughout, you will learn about famous Jewish Chicagoans, such as Henry Greenebaum, Dankmar Adler, Edward Solomon, Hannah Shapiro, Joseph Schaffner, and Julius Rosenwald. Our expert guests are Dr. Tobias Brinkmann (Penn State University) and Dr. Joe Kraus (University of Scranton).
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Literature of Chicago #5: The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

    Literature of Chicago #5: The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
    Apr 19 2024
    In this second episode celebrating Chicago poets for National Poetry Month, Douglas Cowie and Adrienne Brown (University of Chicago) discuss the life and poetry of Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. They talk about her poems that document life in Chicago, "Kitchenette Building," "In the Mecca," "Chicago Picasso," and "The Wall," and unpack the social, economic, racial, cultural, and political history that informs her life and work. Please see these links for further information about topics mentioned in the episode: Gwendolyn Brooks and others reading her poetry: The Library of Congress Audio: https://www.loc.gov/item/85755182/ YouTube: We Real Cool (Short Film produced by the Poetry Foundation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0USvSvhue70 LP (Caedmon Records, 1968): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XlIR-SzVg The Wall of Respect (City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs): https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/wall_of_respect.html History of The Mecca and IIT (Segregation by Design): https://www.segregationbydesign.com/chicago/iit-and-the-mecca-flats
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Literature of Chicago #4: Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems (1919)

    Literature of Chicago #4: Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems (1919)
    Apr 8 2024
    Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation. -Carl Sandburg, Chicago Happy National Poetry Month! We will celebrate poetry by featuring two episodes about two giants of Chicago poetry: Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks. In our first episode, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, Professor Michael Coyle (Colgate University), discuss Carl Sandburg's 1919 collection, Chicago Poems. The panel discusses the origins of Chicago's Poetry Magazine, which is the oldest English-language publication devoted to poetry. They also contrast Sandburg's popular, everyman style with the literary elitism of Modernist poets, such Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Sandburg's poetry is now in the public domain. You can find his work at many sites, including http://www.esp.org/books/sandburg/chicago/chicago-poems.pdf
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    56 mins