To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 1855-1960

by Richard C Lindberg

Overview

Crooked politicians, gangsters, madams, and cops on the take: To Serve and Collect tells the story of Chicago during its formative years through the history of its legendary police department.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809322237
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	08/01/1998
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard C. Lindberg grew up in Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood. His nine books include Chicago by Gaslight: A History of the Chicago Netherworld, 1880–I 920, The White Sox Encyclopedia, and The Armchair Companion to chicago Sports. He is the former editor of the Illinois Police  and Sheriff’s News and served as head writer and senior editor for the Edgar Award-winning Encyclopedia of World Crime.

Editorial Reviews

"Lindberg has a rare gift for making history fun, even with footnotes, and in doing so produces a major work of scholarship that not only puts him in Herbert Asbury’s league but goes a step further by explaining Chicago as well as describing it."—Chicago Magazine

"A grimly amusing case history of big-city police and political corruption, which has achieved its purest form in Chicago."—Digby Diehl, Playboy

"In a clear, flowing style and with scrupulous attention to detail, Richard Lindberg chronicles the unholy alliance of politics, law enforcement, and crime ... : 130 years of unremitting incompetence, deceit, self-aggrandizement, stupidity, and plain venality. . . . Perhaps the most enduring value of this work is in its comprehensive look at Chicago’s political history from the beginning. Lindberg not only provides names, dates, and events, he embellishes the account with fascinating facts, little known details, and occasional touches of suspense that give the book a broad appeal."—Illinois Issues

"Lindberg has written a book in the grand tradition of Herman Kogan, Lloyd Wendt, and Mike Royko. . . . To Serve and Collect is chock-full of the colorful characters with improbable nicknames, outrageous events, and enlivening anecdotes that have earned Chicago its long-established reputation as a freewheeling, wide-open city where the bad guys have hearts of gold and the good guys feet of clay."—Illinois Historical Journal

"An insightful, thorough, provoking book that will raise the ire of a few and bring resounding applause from the many."—John Jemilo, Deputy Superintendent (retired), Chicago Police Department

From the Publisher