American Society War

In 1934, a pair of teenagers from Baltimore by the names of Theodore Jones and Henry Grob embarked on what they thought would be another lazy summer afternoon. They popped in at the soda shop and idly browsed through the aisles of few local mom-and-pop stores, but when they could not kill their boredom, they decided to return to Grob's place for an impromptu treasure hunt. Clunky metal detectors in hand, they roamed around the backyard, discovering and delighting in odd metal knickknacks along the way. What started out as just another slow-moving summer's day turned out to be anything but when one of the detectors began to go off.

On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the white beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.