Publications
Books
Chicago’s Greatest Year, 1893: The White City and the Birth of a Modern Metropolis, Southern Illinois University Press, 2013.
Chicago Transformed: World War I and the Windy City, Southern Illinois University Press, 2016.
Chicago in 50 Objects, The History Press, 2021.
Jazz Age Chicago: Crucible of Modern America, The History Press, 2021.
Selected Magazine Articles
“J.-K. Huysmans and France’s Catholic Revival,” America, Apr 30, 1977.
“Young Hoosier Soldier’s Diary Tells of His Adventures in the Civil War,” South Bend Tribune, Dec 11. 1977.
“Maine’s Legal Pirates of 1812,” Maine Life, Dec 1978.
"Closing the Book," American History Illustrated (Vol. 28, no. 3): pp. 36-42.
“A Real Old-fashioned Vacation: How Early Americans Got Away from It All,” Susquehanna Magazine, Jan 1983.
"Who Invented the Ice Cream Cone?" American History Illustrated, Summer 1988.
“George Washington’s False Teeth,” American History Illustrated, Feb 1989.
“A Presidential Gallery,” American History Illustrated, April 1989 (Capsule biographies of the presidents from Washington to George H.W. Bush)
“The Jukebox: America’s Music Machine,” American History Illustrated, Nov/Dec 1989.
“A Thanksgiving Tradition,” American History, Vol. 30, No. 2. (On the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade).
“Coxey’s Army,” American History Illustrated, Mar/Apr 1994.
“The Nickel and Dime Empire,” American History, Mar 1998. (On F. W. Woolworth)
“The Sticky History of Chewing Gum,” American History, Oct 1998.
“Hopalong Cassidy’s Cranky Creator,” Brooklyn Bridge, Dec 1998. (On Clarence Mulford)
“Lady of the Tower,” American History, June 1999.
“Southern-born Hinton Helper—not Harriet Beecher Stowe—Wrote the Most Stinging Indictment of Slavery,” American Civil War, Jan 1998.
“The Cradle that Rocked America,” American History, Feb 2000.”
“Fire in the Sky,” American History, Dec 2000.
“Neon: A Light History,” American History, June 2000.
“The Explosive History of Popcorn,” American History, Oct 2001.
“The New York City Fire Museum,” American History, Feb 2002.
“Antarctica: World’s Largest Preserve,” World Almanac, Dec 2004.
“Video Recording – Revolution and Evolution,” World Almanac, Jan 2005.
Biographical Portraits for American History Illustrated/American History
“The Character of Coney Island: Stalking the Strange with Sam Gumpertz”
“Orson Fowler: Foursquare Pioneer in the Progressive Tradition”
“Woman of Iron” (on Rebecca Lukens)
“Prototypical Talk Show Host” (Mary Margaret McBride)
“Melvil Dewey: He Was One for the Books
“Mason Locke Weems ‘I Cannot Tell a Lie’”
“Charles Atlas: ‘The World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man’”
“The Hole Truth of John Cleves Symmes”
“George Gipp: ‘One for the Gipper!’”
“Elizabeth Peabody: Pioneer Educator and Intellectual”
“George Perkins Marsh: The First Ecologist”
“Horatio Alger: Creator of the American Success Story”
“One-Man Army” (Peter Francisco)
“Babe Didrikson: America’s Greatest Athlete?”
“’There’s No Mistake in Sam Patch’”
“Johnny Weissmuller: Olympic & Commercial Gold.”
“Mary Harris Jones: ‘The Most Dangerous Woman in America’”
“Ottmar Mergenthaler’s Wonderful Machine”
“Samuel Slater: Father of the Industrial Revolution”
“’Boss’ Tweed: Colossus of Corruption?”
“Wernher von Braun: From Peenemünde to Cape Canaveral”
“E.R. Squibb: Pharmaceutical Pioneer”
“Glenn Miller”
“The Man Who Cooled America” (Willis Haviland Carrier)
“The Woman Behind the ‘Tony’” (Antoinette Perry)