Summer Reading List - Pritzker School of Medicine - University of ...

hCHICAGO NONFICTIONWhen Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor byWilliam Julius Wilson (322 pp.)This is probably the most important book written in the last25 years about the rising inner-city poverty, joblessness, andsegregation in the United States. It’s not explicitly about Chicago,but Wilson’s research and writing of this book took place duringhis long tenure as a sociology professor at the University ofChicago.Black Boy by Richard Wright (448 pp.)This autobiography by Richard Wright (who lived inChicago from 1927 to 1935), published in 1945, usesnovelistic techniquesto describe his harshboyhood and youth inrural Mississippi. It is apowerful and disturbingaccount of socialinjustice and humansuffering in the JimCrow South.Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren(152 pp.)This is arguably the best book written about Chicago.Algren presents 120 years of Chicago history throughthe lens of its “nobodies nobody knows” – thetramps, hustlers, aging bar fighters, freed death-rowinmates, and anonymous working stiffs who prowlits streets.Reading | Sponsored by the Pritzker Book Club