One of the great American metropolises, Chicago rises out of the prairie in the heart of the country, buffeted by winds coming off the plains and cooled by the waters of the inland sea of Lake Michigan. Chicago is a city of size and mass, the cradle of modern architecture, the freight hub of the nation, a city built on slaughterhouses and cacophonous financial trading tempered by some of the finest cultural institutions in the world. While many histories have been written of the city, none can claim the scope and breadth of the long-awaited Encyclopedia of Chicago.
James R. Grossman is Vice President for Research and Education at the Newberry Library and senior lecturer in history at the University of Chicago. Ann Durkin Keating is professor of history at North Central College in Naperville, IL. Janice L. Reiff is associate professor of history and interim director of the Oral History Program at UCLA.