During the late nineteenth century, Chicago's population grew at an astonishing rate, with an estimated growth of 900,000 people between 1860 and 1890. Drawn to the opportunities generated by an expansive economy, hinterland migrants from the rural Midwest flocked to the city, their visions of prosperity creating a thriving modern urban culture. The hopes of these newcomers are the subject of Timothy B. Spears's book "Chicago Dreaming "the story of Chicago's growth and the transplanted Midwesterners who so decisively shaped the young city's identity.
Through innovative readings of...

Vividly illustrated, this lively book presents the first in-depth study of the traveling salesman, illuminating his role in American culture from 1830 to 1920. Drawing on letters, diaries, and autobiographies, as well as on literary works by Crane, Dreiser, Lewis, and Miller, Spears examines the impact of the commercial traveler both on the national market economy and on American imagination.

Tracks the relationship between college football and higher education through the lens of one family's involvement in the sport. Ranging over almost a century of football history, Timothy Spears describes the different ways in which his grandfather, father, and he played the game and engaged with its educational dimensions as the sport was passed from father to son.