City of Scoundrels: A Q&A with author Gart Krist

Gary Krist's latest book, City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago, masterfully tells the story of 12 volatile days in the life of Chicago, when an aviation disaster, a race riot, a crippling transit strike, and a sensational child murder roiled a city already on the brink of collapse. Krist is also the author of The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche.

You can learn more about this book by reading my review.

Thanks Gary for taking time from your busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Q: Why did you write City of Scoundrels?

A: I wanted to write about a city under extraordinary stress.  The evolution of any city, particularly a city of immigrants, involves lots of conflict, with various ethnic, racial, and class-based groups competing against each other for power and prominence.  Often, this kind of competition works to the city’s advantage, channeling energies in constructive directions.  But 1919 in Chicago was one of those times when the energies of competition turned destructive, and instead of working to build the city, started tearing it apart.

Q: The book opens with a dramatic recounting of the Wingfoot air express disaster on July 21^st, 1919. I think most readers will be as surprised as I was to learn of this disaster. Why do you think this disaster, the first aviation disaster in American history, is mostly forgotten and what impact did this disaster ultimately have on aviation travel in the beginning of the 20^th century?

City of Scoundrels by Gary Krist

Ever had one of those weeks when it seems like everything that can go wrong did go wrong? I am sure most, if not all of us, can answer yes to this question, but it would be very difficult to identify when as many situations went wrong as they in Chicago during July, 1919. These situations are all recounted in Gary Krist’s new book City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago. Krist is the also the author of The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche.

Krist opens the book with the dramatic retelling of the crash of the Wingfoot Air Express on July 21^st of 1919. The author provides personal accounts of several victims and survivors and how they came to their fate on that day, including the tale of the unfortunate Carl Otto. As the book unfolds we are taken inside the courtroom during the coroner’s inquiry as representatives from Goodyear arrive to take financial responsibility as they defended against charges of negligence.