Altgeld's America: The Lincoln Ideal Versus Changing Realities

by Ray Ginger

This work focuses on Chicago from 1892-1905, describing the forces that had remodelled America from the rural society of Lincoln's day. Here are the business leaders, labour organizers and politicians, and new immigrants, all exposing the follies of a generation lusting for material success.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several of Ray Ginger's social histories and they are all very good. This is a history of the United States of America told from the perspective of the Altgeld administration of Illinois during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its focus is on my home town, Chicago, the heart of so much change in that period.

It is embarrassing to note that my paternal grandmother's father, Albrecht Neuman, worked with the notorious Judge Gary in the development of the Indiana town named after him and the U.S. Steel plant located there. A successful engineer, this association led to the family building a cottage across the border in Michigan near the lake. Completion of his work in Gary, Indiana also led to the family moving from Hyde Park to Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood on the north side.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

ray ginger is an unacknowledged great in american history. he wrote the definitive biography of eugene debs & tackles a pivotal moment in the book "altgeld's america." chicago in the aftermath of the haymarket affair pitted big money & all-american graft against the burgeoning union movement and the nobler goals of jane addams & hull house.

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like The Free and the Unfree, this is a populist history of the era after the Civil War. As I remember, it concentrated on events around Chicago.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at the transition from pluralism to corporatism in American economic life