The garden city 1835-1871. Frontier town ; The Yankee out West ; Long John and his devils ; Elegance on a grand scale ; The little giant and the rail splitter ; The Civil War and the Chicago conspiracy ; Everyone comes here: anything goes here ; The finer things of life ; The red snow
Enter the ladies 1871-1890. Puritans on Prairie Avenue ; The pride of Potter Palmer ; The sporting life ; The melting pot explodes ; Chicago builds its Parthenon
The spirit of democracy 1890-1910. Why do we need a genealogy? ; The cultivated class is comparatively small ; An ardent temperament rather than a weak will ; The glories of the White City ; From Pullman City to Hull House ; Life along the levee
The inheritance 1910-1930. One ecstasy after another ; Nobody's on the legit ; Grand opera
a libretto for romance ; Insull builds his empire
Epilogue: More than a century of progress.