Boosters, hustlers, and speculators

"Historian Jocelyn Wills offers a business and entrepreneurial history of Minneapolis and St. Paul during their start-up period, 1849-1883, with particular focus on the urban boosters, political hustlers, and western speculators who took chances on and promoted the Cities' development. Most arrived with limited means, and only some managed to realize their aspirations, but all contributed in some measure to this regional expansion of America's entrepreneurial culture. Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators places the two cities at the center of the global economy-in-the-making, illuminating the important connections between local, regional, and international rivalries and the development of American industrialization." "Exhaustively researched, Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators provides a firm foundation for understanding how visionary entrepreneurs - benefiting from government policies and lucrative economic opportunities - transformed Minnesota's Twin Cities from riparian villages into the region's reigning metropolitan center."--Jacket.