"Old + New" is a new series that pairs two books: one old and one new. Most of the reviews on this blog are fairly recent titles sent to me by publishers, but I wanted to expand the reviews to include older books from my library. To do so I'm using this series to review new books and, when appropriate, dig out an old book and include it as part of the review. This series does not replace my typical book reviews or book briefs or my Unpacking My Library blog; it merely expands how I present books on this blog.

Unexpected Chicagoland by Camilo José Vergara, Timothy J. Samuelson
The New Press, 2001
Hardcover, 164 pages

Detroit Is No Dry Bones: The Eternal City of the Industrial Age by Camilo José Vergara University of Michigan Press, 2016
Flexicover, 304 pages

Camilo José Vergara is an American treasure. Educated in sociology and skilled in photography, he has spent the last four decades fusing these two fields to document parts of cities that have been, for lack of a better word, forgotten. Vergara has shot in and around Chicago, Detroit, New York and other U.S. cities, often returning to the same spots to capture their changes. Without him doing so, we'd be worse off, unable to grasp so easily how policies, economics, neglect, and other aspects of American life influence every little slice of land.

Take, for instance, the corner of Fifth Avenue and Monroe Street in Chicago, part of a late-19th-century housing de...