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.

Island of Vice by Richard Zacks

Who is “Ted-dy” Roos-e-velt?

First in war, first in peace.

First to reform the New York Police.

This is how Theodore Roosevelt, then a New York City Police Commissioner, was greeted by a thousand University of Chicago students before giving a speech on George Washington’s birthday. The ironic revelation of this greeting, as noted by Richard Zacks in his new book Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York, is that at this time Roosevelt was more popular outside New York City than within the city he was cleaning up. Zacks is the author of several books including; The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 and The Pirate Hunter.