ABSTRACT
In the Progressive era, the national cultural producers wielded the most concentrated power over Chicago’s image. Image-making had been momentarily abandoned by metropolitan leaders during the inward turn discussed earlier. These leaders not only devoted themselves to civic reform but did so in such a thorough-going fashion that they felt compelled to broadcast their new-found institutional capabilities on the national level as models for other urban centers. Chicagoans accomplished valiant and necessary work on urban issues like the reduction of crime and poverty. Leading Chicagoans assisted the city’s booming immigrant population with the assimilation process. City leaders chose to spend their volunteer hours on the most deserving causes in their city. Yet the timing of their move away from boosterism and towards serious service to their communities proved unfortunate. When viewing the mounting power of popular culture during this same period with the lens of hindsight, we can gauge the trouble a later set of boosters would have in regaining some control over the city’s national reputation.
