Written by the British journalist William T. Stead and published by Laird & Lee in 1894, If Christ Came to Chicago was an inflammatory exposé of Chicago's political corruption and the underground economy. Mixing radical religion and politics, the text allegedly sold 70,000 copies on its publication day. Stead, the son of a Congregationalist minister and the editor of the Review of Reviews, previously had explored such themes in his “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon” in London's Pall Mall Gazette (1885) and In Darkest England (1890), coauthored with Salvation Army founder William Booth. A color-coded map of the Levee district on the Near South Side precisely located the numerous brothels, saloons, and pawnbrokers, and an appendix enumerated the addresses, proprietors, and owners of the highlighted properties. Stead died on the Titanic in 1912.

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