author
Robert O. Harland
Known mainly for a striking early-20th-century exposé of urban corruption, this little-documented writer still stands out for the force and urgency of his social criticism. His surviving reputation rests on one vivid, reform-minded work that captured the darker side of city life.
1 Audiobook
The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, the Wickedest City in the World
by Robert O. Harland
About the author
Very little biographical information about Robert O. Harland appears to be firmly documented in widely accessible sources. He is best known as the author of The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, The Wickedest City in the World, a work first published in 1912 and preserved in library and public-domain catalog records.
That book is a muckraking-style study of vice, political corruption, and social conditions in Chicago. Because so little verified personal history is readily available, Harland is remembered less as a public literary figure than as the author of a single sharp, historically revealing work.
For modern readers, his importance lies in the window he offers into Progressive Era concerns about crime, reform, and urban power. Even with the author himself remaining somewhat obscure, the book continues to attract interest as a piece of social history and investigative writing.