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The book examines the remarkable sacrifice of 526 sworn officers of the Chicago Police Department.
Throughout the book’s 575+ pages and more than 400 photographs, there are detailed
narratives of each officer and the circumstances involved in their deaths. The book
traces the heroic history of Chicago’s finest with accounts of each episode drawn
from municipal records, police files, contemporaneous newspapers, court documents
and ground breaking research.
Emerging from this historical analysis is a bright and vibrant story that winds
through the history of Chicago – the fastest growing city on earth in the last half
of the 19th century. The urban development and municipal expansion of Chicago is
documented through the growth and evolution of its police department. From a prairie
outpost to the gangland era of Prohibition, from the urban chaos welcoming vast
numbers of immigrants to the great advances in law enforcement technology, at the
heart of Chicago’s struggle to survive and grow was the courageous presence of its
urban police. End of Watch is a very human story that describes the great loyalty
and honor emerging in the ordinary lives of extraordinary Chicagoans. This is a
detailed account of how a city grew told through the paradigm of its most remarkable
heroes. The setting unfolds against the background of Chicago’s vast colorful array
of neighborhoods and personalities era after era.
The book is co-authored by Edward Burke, the Dean of the Chicago City Council, its
most well-known historian and a former policeman himself, and Thomas O’Gorman, a
Chicago historian and storyteller, at home in the poetry of its urban life. Together
they weave a hero’s tale not told before. They offer a forensic insight into Chicago’s
soul and the never-to-be-forgotten long blue line of its most noble citizens. Gathered
around this narration is an exhaustive collection of photographs drawn from wide
sources that expand the vivid texture of this history. The saga of Chicago’s Police
that they document is a rich urban story spotlighting the highest ideals of the
Prairie that have shaped Chicago into America’s most American city.
Take A Peek
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