A01=Neil Steinberg
architecture
Author_Neil Steinberg
autobiography
biography
carl sandburg
Category=DNC
Category=NHK
chicago
city
corruption
deep tunnel
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
geography
history
hospitality
industry
jazz
jelly roll morton
jesse jackson
journalism
julia louis dreyfus
memoir
neighborhoods
nonfiction
northwestern
politics
restaurants
skybridge
small business
street life
sun-times
theodore dreiser
tourism
upton sinclair
urban
wrigley building
Product details
- ISBN 9780226772059
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 25 Oct 2012
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In 1952 the "New Yorker" published a three-part essay by A.J. Liebling in which he dubbed "Chicago the Second City". From garbage collection to the skyline, nothing escaped Liebling's withering gaze. Among the outraged responses from Chicago residents was one that Liebling described as the apotheosis of such criticism: a postcard that read, simply, "You were never in Chicago." Neil Steinberg has lived in and around Chicago for more than three decades - ever since he left his hometown of Berea, Ohio, to attend Northwestern University - yet he remains fascinated by the dynamics captured in Liebling's anecdote. In "You Were Never in Chicago" Steinberg weaves the story of his own coming-of-age as a young outsider who made his way into the inner circles and upper levels of Chicago journalism with a nuanced portrait of the city that will surprise even lifelong residents. Steinberg takes readers through Chicago's vanishing industrial past and explores the city from such vantages as the quaint skybridge between the towers of the Wrigley Building and the depths of the vast Deep Tunnel system below the streets.
He deftly explains the city's complex web of political favoritism and carefully profiles the characters he meets along the way, from greats of jazz and journalism to small-business owners just getting by. Throughout, Steinberg never loses the curiosity and close observation of an outsider, while thoughtfully considering how this perspective has shaped the city, and what it really means to belong. Intimate and layered, "You Were Never in Chicago" will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of all Chicagoans - be they born in the city or forever transplanted.
Neil Steinberg is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been on staff since 1987. He is the author of seven books, including Drunkard: A Hard-Drinking Life and Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style.
