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Wet Chicago: Prohibition And The Development Of The Informal Alcohol Economy, Brian Doumeth Jolet

Dissertations

The Prohibition-era presents a story of both continuity and change. While the illegal alcohol manufacturing and selling that occurred during the period was not an aberration from the past, the resultant increased wealth and sway of the criminal underworld and the increasing disrespect for the law were new transformations. This dissertation seeks to understand the informal economy in alcohol by examining the multitude of men and women who participated in this black market in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The analysis describes the movement from small-time bootleggers operating within a narrow market to the development of a complex and hierarchical …

Imprisoning Chicago: Incarceration, The Chicago City Council, Prisoners, And Reform, 1832-1915, Susan Marie Garneau

Dissertations

The Chicago Bridewell and the Chicago House of Correction were unique institutions which illuminate the development of nineteenth-century city incarceration from a fluid to a rigid status. Both institutions detained misdemeanants and violators of city ordinances. They shared similarities with jails and prisons, but emerged as a hybrid institution: a city prison.

Physically and philosophically, city structures, and the inmates detained inside, shifted from being part of the city to one separate of Chicago and its residents. The Chicago City Council Proceeding Files, rarely used by historians, provide a rare glimpse into city leaders' administration of the carceral facilities. Economic …