Building the South Side: Urban Space and Civic Culture in Chicago, 1890-1919

by Robin F. Bachin

Building the South Side explores the struggle for influence that dominated the planning and development of Chicago's South Side during the Progressive Era. Robin F. Bachin examines the early days of the University of Chicago, Chicago’s public parks, Comiskey Park, and the Black Belt to consider how community leaders looked to the physical design of the city to shape its culture and promote civic interaction.


Bachin highlights how the creation of a local terrain of civic culture was a contested process, with the battle for cultural authority transforming urban politics and blurring the line between private and public space. In the process, universities, parks and playgrounds, and commercial entertainment districts emerged as alternative arenas of civic engagement.


 “Bachin incisively charts the development of key urban institutions and landscapes that helped constitute the messy vitality of Chicago’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century public realm.”—Daniel Bluestone, Journal of American History


"This is an ambitious book filled with important insights about issues of public space and its use by urban residents. . . . It is thoughtful, very well written, and should be read and appreciated by anyone interested in Chicago or cities generally. It is also a gentle reminder that people are as important as structures and spaces in trying to understand urban development."

—Maureen A. Flanagan, American Historical Review

Genres: Nonfiction, Urban Studies

448 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2004

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

some useful content but bachin is too terrified to make a single real claim

[Katie Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - not one clear idea, but really enjoyed the chapters on UChicago and public parks!

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text is framed by the planning of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893) and the Race Riots of 1919. From there, the text is split into three parts: The University of Chicago, Parks, and Leisure/Culture. Within these parts, we learn of how the University came to be and then came to influence and develop the city and its residents. In the "Parks" section, we see not only Burham's plan for the aftermath of his White City ("The Burnham Plan"), but how the essence and purpose of public parks changed over time and with the change in the population. Finally we see how baseball (and especially Comiskey) shaped the South Side and how the Black Sox scandal changed the face of the game (and its and its player's reputations). Finally, we build to the race riots of 1919 and look to the months and years of building tensions that had root in so many different areas of city life.

This was a really interesting read and quite expansive for a limited time period and limited geographical area. I appreciated the neutral read on UChicago (for once) in terms of the great things it did while balancing that with the growth of the campus and its inevitable negative impact on the minority communities around it. I was fascinated by the section on parks that showed how we have come 180 degrees from their being formal and fancy places to totally non-structured public spaces - often used for meetings that led to incredible social change. Finally, the section on baseball really showed how Comiskey defined what post-scandal baseball would be like with the rules and leagues and advancement in stadiums. Who would expect that seats used to cost so much - although we are right back there again. An additional section could have been devoted solely to race, but I think blending it into each of the three made the read more smooth.

[Tom Darrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally speaking, this was a pretty good book, but it has a few pretty significant flaws.

Pros - Good general idea... viewing one specific city, it's civic landmarks, and viewing how they influence the creation of civic culture.
Good use of source materials and pictures.
Covers all kinds of class, racial, gender and ethnic groups.
Well written, overall.

Cons - multi-faceted thesis is a bit cumbersome. She tries to argue a "centralized vs. decentralized" approach, while also weaving in commercialism.
Her introduction about the World's Fair claims that the fair was the origin of modern urban planning and civic culture, but that point is never proven.
There is little continuity between chapters. In one, she talks about race, in another she talks about class, but there is little effort to weave them all together, other than the fact that they are all happening at the same time.
The book ends with the race riot of 1919, but I'm not really sure why. Her arguments about civic culture and urban planning don't really seem to fit in.
As a result, this book ends up reading like a couple of articles sandwiched between two high-intensity, but marginally related bookends.

If she had made stronger introduction and conclusion, and taken more time to weave the different chapters together, her arguments would have been much more convincing.

[m. soria · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this city, even as i learn all the seedy, slimy, squirmy bits of gross that gave rise to our beautiful and imperfect town -- from the beginning, this place has longed to prove its pedigree, and been willing to lie and cheat in order to fake it when need be, and yet, by fits and starts, always doing what's right once all other options have been exhausted, we have a rich history worth being proud of.