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One Grand United Hymn: Boosterism In Knoxville, Tennessee At The Turn Of The Century, Jennifer E. Brooks

Masters Theses

In the first quarter of the century, Knoxville's business-civic leadership in the late nineteenth century agreed that the city's prosperity demanded an active program of economic development. Most believed that the proper direction to take was to foster industrial-commercial expansion. Such a plan required attracting outside industry and capital.

The city's promoters also believed that attracting new investment required community solidarity behind any and every booster proposal. Knoxville's business-civic leaders rarely managed, however, to translate these convictions into a unity of purpose behind various developmental schemes. The following study ask why Knoxville's boosters remained seriously divided despite their efforts to …