Many Chicagoans rose in protest over A. J. Liebling's tongue-in-cheek tour of their fair city in 1952. Liebling found much to admire in the Windy City's people and culture-its colorful language, its political sophistication, its sense of its own history and specialness, but Liebling offended that city's image of itself when he discussed its entertainments, its built landscapes, and its mental isolation from the world's affairs. Liebling, a writer and editor for the New Yorker, lived in Chicago for nearly a year. While he found a home among its colorful inhabitants, he couldn't help comparing...