In this vivid portrait of life in Chicago in the fifty years after the Civil War, Margaret Garb traces the history of the American celebration of home ownership. As the nation moved from an agrarian to an industrialized urban society, the competing visions of capitalists, reformers, and immigrants turned the urban landscape into a testing ground for American values. Neither a natural progression nor an inevitable outcome, the ideal of home ownership emerged from the struggles of industrializing cities. Garb skillfully narrates these struggles, showing how the American infatuation with home...

In the spring of 1915, Chicagoans elected the city s first black alderman, Oscar De Priest. In a city where African Americans made up less than five percent of the voting population, and in a nation that dismissed and denied black political participation, De Priest s victory was astonishing. It did not, however, surprise the unruly group of black activists who had been working for several decades to win representation on the city council.
"Freedom s Ballot"is the history of three generations of African American activiststhe ministers, professionals, labor leaders, clubwomen, and...