Start the Presses How a Partisan Press Helped Democracy Prevail in one of Gilded Age Chicago’s Craziest Elections

On October 28, 1893, two days before the end of the Columbian Exposition, Chicago mayor Carter Harrison was assassinated. This would have been a big enough blow in itself - what had been Chicago’s greatest triumph was now overshadowed by tragedy and violence. The triumphant closing ceremonies were quietly converted into a memorial for the man known to many as “Our Carter.” Bad enough indeed, but it also turned out that Chicago had no laws to decide how to replace a mayor who died in office, and a campaign was underway that had already made national headlines: Illinois Governor Altgeld was actively opposing the re-election of the judge who had condemned the Haymarket anarchists. Indeed he’d pardoned the remaining prisoners earlier that year. All Chicago politicians would use this vacuum to their advantage. They would have help and plenty of it, from Chicago’s newspapers, each of which had its candidates to support and axes to grind.

What followed was political combat that made national headlines: a council meeting that erupted into a physical melee, Republicans locking their own aldermen in a building for ten hours to prevent them from being bribed, and a Reading Clerk — ex-member of the Hatch House Gang — shredding resolutions by the opposition before they could even be read.

We know every trick that was employed to get that office, because Chicago's newspapers reported all of it - every bribe attempt, every backroom deal, every parliamentary sleight of hand. These were not virtuous times, nor were these virtuous editors. The publishers of the two Republican papers loathed each other almost as much as they loathed the Democrats. One childhood friend savaged another in print. A banker used his paper to punish a mayor who'd denied him city deposits. If democracy indeed dies in darkness, it was the dirt-digging of the Chicago papers of 1893 that forced democracy to function.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because we have dire questions today about whether our news media outlets are up to the task of reporting in a time when democratic norms are under attack from our own government. Does partisan media help or harm democracy? Start the Presses offers a model from 1893 Chicago: whether or not newspapers were partisan, they were fiercely engaged in the politics. They acted as if they had a dog in the fight, because they did. We all do.

If you liked these books, you might like mine: Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City; Candice Millard, Destiny of the Republic; Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing

To agents:

A book proposal and sample chapters are available upon request.