by Jocelyn Wills
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| List Price: | $34.95 |
| Amazon Price: | $34.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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Product Description
In 1849, when settlers arrived in the newly formed Minnesota Territory, they disembarked at the rough shantytown known as St Paul, home to fur traders and a handful of merchants. Nearby was Fort Snelling, its soldiers charged with keeping peace in the wilderness, its territory later transferred to the burgeoning settlement at Minneapolis. Less than four decades later, St Paul had emerged as a mercantile, banking, and railroading centre, and Minneapolis had matured into the world's largest flour-milling centre. The story of how this came to be involves assorted visionaries, savvy entrepreneurs, and government-supported expansion that combined to make St Paul -- Minneapolis the region's undisputed business, political, and educational centre. Historian Jocelyn Wills offers a business and entrepreneurial study of the Twin Cities during its early years, with particular focus on the individuals who took chances on and promoted the Cities' development. Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators shares the successes and failures of a host of colourful characters who saw in the Twin Cities opportunities for financial gain and regional fame: early fur trader Norman Kittson, who built a lucrative trading network reaching to the Red River Valley; speculator Franklin Steele, who over-reached at the Falls of St Anthony and was virtually bankrupt after the panic of 1857; milling visionary William D Washburn, whose confident investments catapulted Minneapolis's milling district to international renown; railroad magnate James J Hill, whose calculated business decisions helped him realise his dream of building a rail line to the Pacific. Most arrived with limited means, and only some managed to realise their dreams, but all contributed to the development of Minneapolis and St. Paul as the region's leading manufacturing, banking, and transportation centre. This exhaustively researched book provides a firm foundation for understanding the role the Twin Cities have played in the development of the region and the nation from their earliest days.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
business history of Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1800s, 2004-12-25
The year 1849 was when Minnesota became a state; 1883 was the year the Northern Pacific Railroad celebrated the completion of its link between Minneapolis-St. Paul and the West coast. In between these years, the historically closely tied cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul grew from a "collection of huts and shanties" to a major national and international center of commerce. With the phone system, up-to-date plumbing, and electricity the cities brought in in the latter 1800s, they began to more and more resemble other major American cities. Wills meticulously follows the rapid growth of the two cities by focusing on the activity of the most important individuals in the area of commerce and the economy. She is methodical and complete in describing their outsized activities and the results of these, for the most part passing over their personalities and personal lives. Even the author's notes over 40 pages are worth going through for the facts and comments found in many. Wills is an assistant professor of history at Brooklyn College, CUNY. What her book lacks in color, it more than makes up for in substance and thoroughness. It's the fundamental economic history on Minneapolis and St. Paul in the middle decades of the 19th century.
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