Liquid Capital: Making the Chicago Waterfront

by Joshua A.T. Salzmann

In the nineteenth century, politicians transformed a disease-infested bog on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan into an intensively managed waterscape supporting the life and economy of Chicago, now America's third-most populous city. In Liquid Capital , Joshua A. T. Salzmann shows how, through a combination of entrepreneurship, civic spirit, and bareknuckle politics, the Chicago waterfront became a hub of economic and cultural activity while also the site of many of the nation's precendent-setting decisions about public land use and environmental protection. Through the political saga of waterfront development, Salzmann illuminates Chicago's seemingly paradoxical position as both a paragon of buccaneering capitalism and assertive state power.

The list of actions undertaken by local politicians and boosters to facilitate the waterfront's success is officials reversed a river, built a canal to fuse the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, decorated the lakeshore with parks and monuments, and enacted regulations governing the use of air, land, and water. With these feats of engineering and statecraft, they created a waterscape conducive to commodity exchange, leisure tourism, and class harmony—in sum, an invaluable resource for profit making. Their actions made the city's growth and the development of its western hinterlands possible. Liquid Capital sheds light on these precedent-making policies, their effect on Chicago's development as a major economic and cultural force, and the ways in which they continue to shape legislation regarding the use of air and water.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published December 20, 2017

Reviews

[Andrew Morin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. A good balance between chronological and thematic approach, also adequately including ties with the rest of the region. A little more on the growth of the North Shore might have been nice (indeed, any of the city's residential areas to complement its industry and commerce. Also would have liked one more chapter on post-war developments.

[Zak Yudhishthu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book manages to tell an extremely detailed history of economic and industrial development along the Chicago waterfront in the city’s early life, while also having larger things to say about the nature of state craft and urban economies.

The highlights for me were the discussions of “the legal construction of free marketplaces” — a fascinating look at tensions that arose between laissez-faire ideals, and attempts to regulate markets in order to actually make them work better. Other historical pieces served as a reminder that many elements of urban growth are not nearly as predetermined as they appear to be retroactively. There are many very human contingencies that have shaped our cities.

At just a couple of moments, the book got a bit too dry and in the weeds for me, but the through lines are very strong, and the concluding chapter analyzing millennium Park and post industrial Chicago so completely fantastic, that I’m happy to give this book five stars.