Hobohemia: Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, Ben Reitman & Other Agitators & Outsiders In 1920s/30s Chicago

by Frank O. Beck

From the 1910s through the Depression 30s, when Chicago was the undisputed hobo capital of the United States, a small north side neighborhood know as Towertown was the vital center of an extraordinary cultural/political ferment. It was home to Bughouse Square (the nation's most renowned outdoor free-speech center), Ben Reitman's Hobo College, and the fabulous Dil Pickle club, a highly unorthodox institution of higher learning that doubled as the craziest nightclub in the world. It was something like New York's Greenwich Village, but - thanks to the prominence of the Chicago-based IWW - much more working class, and more openly revolutionary. Frank O Becks Hobohemia contains a long time Towertowner's vivid reminiscences of this colorful, dynamic, creative and radical community that flourished for a generation despite constant onslaughts from the Red Squad, the Vice Squad, bourgeois journalists and fundamentalist bigots. Originally published in 1956, this handsome new edition contains a superb introduction from Franklin Rosemont, providing a historical overview of Chicago's working class counter-culture, and a biographical sketch of Beck. It also relates the book to earlier and later literature on the subject and fills in some gaps in the narrative.

Genres: History, American History, Activism

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Rufus · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it doesn't do its subjects the justice they deserve in a lot of ways, it does make the whole scene feel so much more _alive_ than reading normal historical accounts and published essays etc. It is a very fun and quick read, and I would recommend to anyone interested in Chicago radicals.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, frank look at the margins of society in 1920s Chicago, and how un-pc, revolutionary antics bring us to a more platitude-ridden, mediocrity of the present day.

[Rupert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An inspiring slim book of vignettes about radicals & hoboes living in Chicago before World War I and creating their own universities & clubhouses. Told from the viewpoint of a prejudiced but open hearted Christian minister with a good eye for detail.

[zoe nicol · Rating 1 out of 5]

An engaging topic; a hurried and lackluster treatment. (I am not placing blame; I am glad the book is available. But it pales in comparison to works like Parson's essays.)