The Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Haymarket bombing of 1886, and the making and unmaking of the model town of Pullman - these remarkable events in what many considered the quintessential American city forced people across the country to confront the disorder that seemed inevitably to accompany urban growth and social change.

In this book, Carl Smith explores the imaginative dimensions of these events as he traces the evolution of beliefs that increasingly linked city, disorder, and social reality in the minds of Americans.

Though the fire, the bombing, and the development of Pullman from its founding to the notorious strike each has a history of its own, Smith shows that these histories were intimately connected in the public consciousness.

Exploring a remarkable range of writings and illustrations, as well as protests, public gatherings, trials, hearings, and urban reform and construction efforts, Smith argues that these three events - and the public awareness of them - informed one another, and that they collectively shaped how Americans saw, and continue to see, the city.