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Dutch Chicago Dutch Chicago

A History of the Hollanders in the Windy City

by Swierenga, Robert P.

The story of the Dutch in Chicago until now largely has been below the radarscreen of historians. The dean of Dutch American historians in his latest book has lifted the veil on an amazing community which now numbers in excess of 250,000. Whereas most Dutch groups in Chicago assimilated into the American culture around them, the Dutch Reformed settled into a few distinct enclaves - the Old West Side, Englewood, Roseland and South Holland - where they stuck together, and build an infrastructure of churches, schools, societies, and shops that enabled them to live from cradle to grave within their own communities. The closest the Chicago Dutch came to farming was owning horses which the entrepreneurial types used in their businesses, particularly garbage hauling and vegetable gardening and peddling. Business always was picking up for them. In jobs that Americans despised, the Dutch saw opportunities, eventually monopolizing the disposal business not just in Chicago but across the nation. The author also covers those groups that assimilated. "This brilliant chronicle of a unique ethnic enclave is as much a tribute to the overlooked Dutch continguent of the Windy City as a monument of historical scholarship." - Hans Krabbendam, Roosevelt Study Center.

Hardcover, 857 pages, With jacket, 250 photos and illustrations, appendixes detailing garbage and hauling industries, bibliography, index.

USD 49.95 / CAD 64.95

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