Book Club - The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream

Between about 1945 and 1960, Chicago created much of what Americans came to think of as modern life—from architecture and consumer products to politics, media, and urban planning. New York may have been America's financial and cultural capital, and Los Angeles its entertainment capital, but Chicago was where many of the practical ideas behind the postwar American middle class were first developed and tested.

It connects many familiar landmarks, such as the first McDonalds, and institutions to broader national changes and explains why Chicago was such a pivotal city in the decades after World War II.