The Chicago 77

Book excerpt: An entertaining guidebook to the city’s many communities with maps, landmarks, history, and fun facts. With over two hundred neighborhoods divided into seventy-seven community areas, Chicago offers a dazzling and daunting challenge to ambitious tourists and lifelong citizens. This blend of history and travel guide introduces you to them. Anyone who’s never been to Chicago will be shocked to learn how big it really is. Did you know that Humboldt Park isn’t even in Humboldt Park? Confused about the exact boundaries of West Elsdon or curious about the origins of the famous Second City Theater? In a handbook that is both an entertaining adventure and a methodical survey, Mary Zangs tackles all seventy-seven communities, providing maps, points of interest, and local perspectives for the many places Chicagoans call home.