American Experience

Season 15 Episode 5: Chicago: City of the Century (3): Battle for Chicago

A three-part history based on historian Donald L. Miller's book "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America." Part 3 concludes by exploring the city's ethnic and class tensions during the 1880s and '90s. Ethnic groups banded together in what narrator David Ogden Stiers calls "a defensive communalism," but most immigrants headed first to the city's worst slum, the Near West Side, which was presided over by Alderman Johnny Powers, the "prince of the boodlers," who traded services for votes.

Genre:

Documentary

Seasons:

37

Episodes:

396

Cast:

Quality:

HD

Duration:

55 min

First Air:

1988

Rating:

6.5