{"product_id":"chicago-before-the-fire-an-economic-history-9780252088698","title":"Chicago Before the Fire: An Economic History","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn advantageous location and entrepreneurial passion helped fuel Chicago's transformation from a fur trading post to a thriving city. Louis P. Cain's economic history places pre-1871 Chicago within the narrative of national expansion and examines infrastructure, finance, and other areas of city life. Business histories tell the story of fortunes made with essential products like meat and grain. Sketches of titans like William Ogden and Cyrus McCormick reveal how real estate, farm equipment, and other industries became engines of local growth. Cain also details public health improvements that made Lake Michigan safe as a water supply while census data informs a portrait of Chicago's population and the lives of the free Blacks and Irish immigrants at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePanoramic and up to date, \u003ci\u003eChicago before the Fire\u003c\/i\u003e looks at how an intersection of geography, vision, and investment built a great American city.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLouis P. Cain\u003c\/b\u003e is an adjunct professor of economics at Northwestern University and a professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago. He is the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eThe Children of Eve: Population and Well-being in History\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51318827122962,"sku":"9780252088698","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e8893bdd-48ca-45eb-b3b5-d999a295a1be.jpg?v=1748517205","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/chicago-before-the-fire-an-economic-history-9780252088698","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}