Structuring Poverty in the Windy City - Autonomy, Virtue, and Isolation in Post-Fire Chicago

The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 left tens of thousands without housing, food, fuel, or clothing. In the aftermath the mayor handed all relief duties to the commercial elite at the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. This was, as this study shows, a decision that ensured Chicago's physical rebuilding would be coupled with a rebuilding of the city's poor.