Writing Chicago uncovers the deep connections between the renowned Chicago school of sociology - exemplified by William Thomas, Robert Park and Robert Redfield - and the great Chicago novelists of the 1930s, Nelson Algren, Richard Wright and James T. Farrell, all of whom integrated sociological theories into their own work.

Storytelling is an essential aspect of any legal case. But what kinds of stories win cases, and why? Criminal Conversations explores sentimentality as both a literary genre and a rhetorical strategy in the novels and courtrooms of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. By focusing on "criminal conversation"--the civil tort whereby a cuckold sues his wife's lover to for damages to his property rights from the adultery--Korobkin argues that literary discourse, used in the courtroom, affects the outcomes of legal cases. She shows how lawyers used sentimentality...