Thomas Dyja discusses his book The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream. Though today it can seem as if all American culture comes out of New York and Los Angeles, much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to-coast journey included a stop here, and this flow of people and commodities made it America’s central clearinghouse, laboratory and factory.

Recorded live April 18, 2013 at the Harold Washington Library.