The Working Man's Reward
Chicago's Early Suburbs and the Roots of American Sprawl
Elaine Lewinnek
Reviews and Awards
"In her outstanding new book...Elaine Lewinnek explores the fascinating complexity of how Chicago's suburbs have been defined and how they have evolved...Lewinnek has written one of the best books about Chicago in a long time, and reading it will reward any working or thinking man or woman interested in Chicago, or its suburbs, old or new."--Chicago Tribune
"This book provides readers with an insightful case study of patterns of human habitation in metropolitan Chicago...Among the strengths of this study is its determination to place race in its storyline...Lewinnek unflinchingly and deftly manages to integrate race into a broader, much-welcomed demographic context...[A]n insightful, thought-provoking, and highly readable book."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Lewinnek...adds to the scholarly chorus proclaiming the mixed origins of America's suburbs and the diverse factors molding their development."--Journal of American History
"The Working Man's Reward is a welcome contribution to the history of Chicago and an insightful reminder that the difference between urban and suburban culture can be surprisingly fluid."--American Historical Review
"In the late nineteenth century, before homeownership had become the aspiration of all Americans, it was the particular dream of workers and immigrants. Nowhere was this was more true than in the boom town of the era, Chicago. Drawing imaginatively on an impressive range of sources, in The Working Man's Reward Elaine Lewinnek shows how dreams shaped the place."--Richard Harris, McMaster University
"Well before sunbelt cities like Los Angeles, Chicago was setting national trends as a suburban metropolis. Elaine Lewinnek brilliantly shows how suburban diversity always defined this history. In this exceptionally rich rendering of the working-class suburban experience, Lewinnek has produced a paragon of the new suburban history."--Becky Nicolaides, author of My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965
"Elaine Lewinnek has found new and fascinating things to say about Chicago. Detailing the practicalities and politics of housing during Chicago's great boom decades, this study gives the creation of Chicago's working class neighborhoods pride of place in the city's history. It simultaneously makes an exciting contribution to American intellectual history by revealing the multiple ways in which Chicagoans ranging from real estate promoters to scholars and novelists understood the contested meanings of these so-called 'ordinary' neighborhoods." --Carl Abbott, author of How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America