@article{694774,
      recid = {694774},
      author = {Mitrani, Sam.},
      title = {The rise of the Chicago police department class and  conflict, 1850-1894 / [electronic resource] :},
      pages = {1 online resource (273 pages) :},
      abstract = {"The police simply did not exist in early American life.  Between 1840s and the end of 1880s, every major northern  city built a substantial police force. Sam Mitrani examines  the making of the police in Chicago, which rapidly grew  into the most violent, turbulent city in America by the  late 1800s. From the Lager Beer riot of 1855, through the  Civil War, 1867's strikes for the eight-hour day, the 1871  fire, 1877 strike and riot, the May Day strikes and the May  Day strikes and the Haymarket bombing, Chicago was roiling  with political and economic conflict, much of it rooted in  class tensions. Chicago's lawmakers overcame many obstacles  to build a force that could impose order. Forming an  adequately paid, professional department turned out rather  expensive. The police's advocates responded by forging a  concept of order into a central political ideology. This  concept reinforced the police's legitimacy among the urban  populace, defining the role of policemen in municipal  affairs. First the police protected property and suppressed  disturbances on the street. They also arrested thousands  for drunk and disorderly behavior throughout the second  half of the nineteenth century, and attempted to control  the behavior of women in brothels. By the 1880s, this  ideology of order shaped both the police's behavior and a  large portion of municipal politics. Mitrani recasts  late-nineteenth-century Chicago in terms of the struggle  over order, emphasizing the role of public institutions in  the development of capitalism. Businessmen shaped these  state institutions to protect their economic interests, yet  Chicago's police could not control daily life in the  working class' neighborhoods. Thus, ordinary Chicagoans  managed to limit the force of the municipal police"--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/694774},
}