Sensing Chicago: Noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers

Studies in Sensory History

by Adam Mack

A hundred years ago and more, a walk down a Chicago street invited an assault on the senses. Untiring hawkers shouted from every corner. The manure from thousands of horses lay on streets pooled with molasses and puddled with kitchen grease. Odors from a river gelatinous and lumpy with all manner of foulness mingled with the all-pervading stench of the stockyard slaughterhouses. In Sensing Chicago , Adam Mack lets fresh air into the sensory history of Chicago in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by examining five case the Chicago River, the Great Fire, the 1894 Pullman Strike, the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle , and the rise and fall of the White City amusement park. His vivid recounting of the smells, sounds, and tactile miseries of city life reveals how input from the five human senses influenced the history of class, race, and ethnicity in the city. At the same time, he transports readers to an era before modern refrigeration and sanitation, when to step outside was to be overwhelmed by the odor and roar of a great city in progress.

Genres: History

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2015

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe they buried George M. Pullman like a vampire holy shit new conspiracy theory just dropped

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This takes me back to graduate school in both good and bad ways. "Sensory" history seems to be a rabbit hole of cultural history that seeks to tease out intellectual and cultural currents through the focus of how people in the past used sensory cues to describe things--both in laudatory ways, but often in ways to exclude, divide, and eschew. While this can be interesting--who doesn't want to read all about the stinky horrors of the late 19th century Chicago River?--it can also be rather disappointing. For instance, in a 112-page book, even the tangents often p come up less interesting than they should (Pullman). And the other "White City," the final chapter devoted to a forgotten amusement park in Chicago, spends nearly as much time discussing Coney Island, New York. As so often occurs in the genre of cultural history, a patchwork of topics hangs together by a common theme or theoretical framework. These are sometimes convincing, but more often than not, they simply get overstretched and end up disappointing. Even in such a short treatment, this happens here. Thomas Bender remains the master of this genre, never getting beyond what the topic can tolerate. Still, the first chapter on the river is a must-read (thankfully, not a must-smell!)

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting - not sure what I was expecting, maybe something more akin to "Spell of the Sensuous"? But fascinating and a deeper dig into these aspects of Chicago history (the river, the fire, labor/race/politics).

[alexa koe · Rating 2 out of 5]

well written, short, interesting. nothing that couldn't be summed up in a few paragraphs. i don't think sensory history in this extreme of detail is all that valuable? there's also no working-class perspectives, booooooooo.

[Douglas Graney · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting if somewhat disgusting read. I especially enjoyed the chapter dealing with Upton Sinclair.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I don't know if this had to be a whole book (or maybe it could have been even longer? I don't know!) I'm really glad it exists. It's an interesting addition to other histories of Chicago.