Creating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History. This item is unavailable.Creating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History

<div>They are the suburban jewels that crown one of the world's premier cities. Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff: together, they comprise the North Shore of Chicago, a social registry of eight communities that serve as a genteel enclave of affluence, culture, and high society. Historian Michael H. Ebner explains the origins and evolution of the North Shore as a distinctive region. At the same time, he tells the paradoxical story of how these suburbs, with their common heritage, mutual values, and shared aspirations, still preserve their distinctly separate identities. Embedded in this history are important lessons about the uneasy development of the American metropolis.</div>

Why I wrote this book
On a March afternoon in 1980, a student in my seminar on American social history asked the following question: how can neighboring communities be, at once, so alike and yet so different. I used the North Shore suburbs of Chicago to answer Felice Entratter's question, consuming nearly three hours of engrossing discussion. Her question, and the ensuing discussion with the rest of the students (all of whom are acknowledged at the beginning of the book), propelled me to devote the next eight years to writing my book.