Chicago: City of the Century From a swampy frontier town of fur traders and Native Americans, Chicago rose to become the quintessential American city of the 19th century. This three-part film shows how innovation, ingenuity, determination and ruthlessness created empires in what was a marshy wasteland, and describes the hardships endured by millions of working men and women whose labor helped a capitalist class reinvent the way America did business. Along the way, "City of the Century" revels in Chicago's triumphs and delves into the heart of the city's painful struggles. The program is based on "City of the Century" by Donald Miller. When's it on? Visit the Site What do you think were the key factors that led to Chicago's rise from isolated trading post to metropolis of 300,000 in just 40 years? How do you think Chicago changed America in the 19th century? Consider Pullman City (the planned community for railroad workers). What implications does its story have for contemporary planned communities? Hull House was criticized because it didn't address the root causes of poverty. What do you think? Why do you think the various immigrant groups in Chicago were so suspicious of and antagonistic toward each other? What do Chicago's successes and failures in dealing with the influx of immigrants portend for the current wave of immigration to the U.S.? Impoverished immigrants, many of them uneducated and from a rural background, saw opportunity, not problems, and managed to rise above their circumstances and prosper in an urban environment. How do you account for this? How does this relate to immigrants today? Corporate titans helped transform Chicago into a powerhouse of a city. What do you think about this? Do you think there are there lessons for contemporary society in the ways Chicago developed? Think about the history of your hometown. Who first settled there? What factors led to its growth? Are those influences still evident today?
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