Uncover the secret Chicago laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style. Before Frank Lloyd Wright officially launched America's most famous architectural career, he was designing the building blocks of his legendary prairie style on the side. In violation of his contract with his employers, Adler and Sullivan, Wright moonlighted as an independent architect from his Oak Park studio. From 1892 through the spring of 1893, he experimented with the elements that would become his signature in houses in Chicago, La Grange and Oak Park. The full roster of these "bootleg homes" has remained a matter of mystery and debate. Robert Hartnett seeks to provide the first definitive account of the hidden artifacts of Wright's storied legacy.

Step into the future of the past in Chicago's 1893 World's Fair!

What came to be known as the World's Columbian Exposition was planned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's 1492 landfall in the New World. Chicago beat out New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, DC, in its bid as host - a coup for the Windy City. The site finally selected for the fair was Jackson Park, a marshy area covered with dense, wild vegetation. Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root were selected as chief architects, creating the famous White City. The fair featured several different thematic areas: the Great Buildings, Foreign Buildings, State Buildings, and the Midway Plaisance, a nearly mile-long area that featured exotic exhibits. The exposition also showcased the world's first Ferris Wheel and introduced fairgoers to new sensations like Cracker Jack, Pabst Beer, and ragtime music. Unfortunately, by 1896, most of the fair's buildings had been removed or destroyed, but this collection takes readers on a tour of the grounds as they looked in 1893.

Within thirty years of the Great Chicago Fire, the revitalized city was boasting some of America's grandest department stores. The retail corridor on State Street was a crowded canyon of innovation and inventory where you could buy anything from a paper clip to an airplane. Revisit a time when a trip downtown meant dressing up for lunch at Marshall Field's Walnut Room, strolling the aisles of Sears for Craftsman tools or redeeming S&H Green Stamps at Wieboldt's. Whether your family favored The Fair, Carson Pirie Scott, Montgomery Ward or Goldblatt's, you were guaranteed stunning architectural design, attentive customer service and eye-popping holiday window displays. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, advertisements, catalogue images and postcards, Leslie Goddard's narrative brings to life the Windy City's fabulous retail past.

Chicago Cubs fans always will remember the beloved 1969 team. Yet the 1970 Cubs are, in many ways, more interesting. The Cubs added fascinating characters like Joe Pepitone and Milt Pappas to the legendary nucleus of Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Ernie Banks. The team came closer than in any year between 1945 and 1984--finishing only five games out of first place in one of baseball's hottest pennant races. Offering a fast-paced look at the season month by month, William S. Bike moves beyond wins, losses and statistics to relive Ernie Banks's 500th home run, the addition of "the basket" to the outfield walls and other iconic moments from a landmark year at Wrigley Field.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a voluntary government work relief program that offered nearly 3 million unemployed, unmarried men the job of restoring and conserving America's public lands, forests and parks. The wages weren't the only draw--the program also threw in three square meals a day served in the camp mess hall. The Civilian Conservation Corps Cookbook features the recipes that sustained not only the CCC during the Great Depression but also our grandparents and great-grandparents. Budget friendly, with ingredients that can easily be found--if not in your very own pantry then at your local grocer--these recipes reflect the "make do" attitude of Depression-era home cooks.

July 24, 1915 was supposed to be Chicago's social event of a lifetime, but turned into a tragedy unlike any other.

More than 7,000 people living in the Chicago area and Michigan City, Indiana, eagerly anticipated Saturday morning, July 24, 1915. This particular Saturday was going to be anything but a routine summer day. Plans had been carefully made for it to be the social and entertainment event of the year, and for some, a lifetime. The fifth annual midsummer excursion and picnic had been organized by the employees of the Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works. Thousands of carefree merrymakers would enjoy a festive day including a lovely cruise across Lake Michigan to an awaiting parade and day-long picnic. The day would conclude with an evening cruise back to Chicago. For thousands of hard-working immigrant laborers and their families and friends, it was going to be a day to remember.

Instead, the day's scheduled event turned into a tragedy never before seen. The SS Eastland, while still tied to the wharf, rolled into the Chicago River with more than 2,500 passengers on board. Nearly 850 people lost their lives, including 22 entire families. The ensuing struggle for survival, and the resulting death, heroism, cowardice, greed, and scandal gripped the city of Chicago.