Cultural boundaries: Constructing urban space and civic culture on Chicago's South Side, 1890-1919

This dissertation explores the relationship between urban space and civic culture on the South Side of Chicago during the Progressive Era. I discuss urban planning as a cultural and political process whereby various city leaders, both men and women, sought to create an urban public sphere which emphasized their (sometimes conflicting) visions of order, civility, and respectability. This examination focuses on the interaction between planners and reformers, state officials, and community residents as they each sought to shape urban development and define their roles within the urban environment.; I look at three sites on Chicago's South Side in order to illustrate the contestation and compromise involved in the planning and use of urban space, and in the development of public discourse. The University of Chicago, the South Parks system, and Comiskey Park all represented arenas in which community leaders sought to create a unified civic culture. Civic leaders articulated an understanding of urban society which posited strong connections between the physical shape of the city, and urban social order and civic culture. This belief in the reforming capacity of the urban landscape, what I am calling "progressive urbanism," took a variety of forms during the period under study. Numerous leaders, including university administrators, park promoters, and mass culture entrepreneurs, looked to the physical design of the city to shape their visions of urban culture.; Yet the urban landscape of the South Side functioned both as a site of civic unity and as an arena for the expression of diverse ethnic, racial, and class interests. I illustrate how the creation of a local terrain of civic culture was a contested process, with the battle for cultural authority transforming urban politics and blurring the line between private and public space. In the process, new sites of public culture--including universities, parks and playgrounds, and commercial ballparks--emerged as alternative arenas of civic discourse.