The pig and the skyscraper - Marco D'Eramo

Like a cross between Philip Marlowe and Walter Benjamin, Marco d'Eramo stalks the streets of Chicago, leaving no myth unturned. Maintaining a European's detached gaze, he slowly comes to recognize the familiar stink of modernity that blows across the Windy City, the origins of whose greatness (the slaughterhouses, the railroads, the lumber and cereal-crop trades) are by now ancient history, and where what rears its head today is already scheduled for tomorrow's chopping block.

Chicago has been the stage for some of modernity's key episodes: the birth of the skyscraper, the rise of urban sociology, the world's first atomic reactor, the hard-nosed monetarism of the Chicago School. Here in this postmodern Babel, where the contradictions of American society are writ large, d'Eramo bears witness to the revolutionary, subversive power of capitalism at its purest.

Originally a physicist, Marco d'Eramo studied sociology with Pierre Bourdieu in Paris. He is a regular contributor to the newspaper Il manifesto and has written several books.

Mike Davis is the author of several books including Planet of Slums , City of Quartz ,
Ecology of Fear , Late Victorian Holocausts , and Magical Urbanism . He was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. He lives in Papa'aloa, Hawaii.

"Little in the urban scene escapes his attention, and his polemic is a fascinating and wide-ranging contribution to contemporary social thought."— Choice

"A serious-minded and acutely insightful social analysis of Chicago as the penultimate example of the modern metropolis ... A fascinating, in-depth account."— Bookwatch

"This kaleidoscope of a book, with its ability to surprise at every turn of the page, to excite the reader with a fresh insight, a new way of seeing, is to be strongly recommended."— Frontline

"Chicago, America's megalopolis-as-metaphor, has found its leftward de Tocqueville in Marco d'Eramo. His book is as rare as an Indian Head penny and as hard as truth. It is a book that Algren, Dreiser, Altgeld and Darrow would have acclaimed as 'on the button.'"—Studs Terkel

"D'Eramo's keen eye and often ironic stance brilliantly capture the urban condition. As he takes us through the most extraordinary array of events and places, he uncovers a Chicago we had not quite seen."—Saskia Sassen

"d'Eramo looks to Chicago both as a guide to what the future might be like for European and other cities, but also as a warning about what to avoid."— Chicago Tribue

"d'Eramo's book examines different institutions that originated or flourished in Chicago ... rather than narrating a straightforward history. But he does so not just to understand the city or the United States, but also what it means to be 'modern.'"— In These Times

"For anyone concerned to gain a full-frontal view of 'capitalism without a G-string', this is compelling reading."— Socialist Review