Seeing with Their Hearts : : Chicago Women and the Vision of the Good City, 1871-1933 / / Maureen A. Flanagan.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Flanagan, Maureen A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.) :; 24 halftones.

At the turn of the last century, as industrialists and workers made Chicago the hardworking City of Big Shoulders celebrated by Carl Sandburg, Chicago women articulated an alternative City of Homes in which the welfare of residents would be the municipal government's principal purpose. Seeing With Their Hearts traces the formation of this vision from the relief efforts following the Chicago fire of 1871 through the many political battles of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. In the process, it presses a new understanding of the roles of women in public life and writes a new history of urban America. Heeding the call of activist Louise de Koven Bowen to become third-class passengers on the train of life, thousands of women "put their shoulders to the wheel and their whole hearts into the work" of fighting for better education, worker protections, clean air and water, building safety, health care, and women's suffrage. Though several well-known activists appeared frequently in these initiatives, Maureen Flanagan offers compelling evidence that women established a broad and durable solidarity that spanned differences of race, class, and political experience. She also shows that these women--emphasizing their common identity as women seeking a city amenable to the needs of women, children, families, and homes--pursued a vision and goals distinct from the reform agenda of Progressive male activists. They fought hard and sometimes successfully in a variety of public places and sites of power, winning victories from increased political clout and prenatal care to municipal garbage collection and pasteurized milk. While telling the fascinating and in some cases previously untold stories of women activists during Chicago's formative period, this book fundamentally recasts urban social and political history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Acronyms -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction City of Big Shoulders or City of Homes? Re-envisioning Urban History -- Part One CRAFTING THE VISION -- One "The Whole Work Has Been Committed to the Hands of Women": Women Respond to the Fire of 1871 -- Two "Thoughtful Women Are Needed": Forming Groups and Forging Alliances -- Part Two EXPANDING THE VISION -- Three "The First Thing Is to Create Public Sentiment and Then Express It at Every Opportunity": The Growth of Progressive Activism -- Four "The Welfare of the Community Requires the Admission of Women to Full Citizenship": The Campaign for Municipal Suffrage, 1896-1912 -- Five "To Bring Together Women Interested in Promoting the Welfare of the City": The Expansion of Women's Municipal Work, 1910-16 -- Part Three CAMPAIGNING FOR THE VISION -- Six "I Do Not Think the Husband Will Influence the Wife's Vote in Municipal Affairs": Women as Voters and Potential Officeholders, 1913-19 -- Seven "Looking Out for the Interests of the People": Municipal Activism through the 1920s -- Eight "I Am the Only Woman on Their Entire Ticket": The End of an Era -- Conclusion Chicago Remains the City of Big Shoulders -- Appendixes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index