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Explores the significant role played by Chautauqua boosters in the Middle West and West from 1874-1900. Promotion of a vision of racial and religious progress; Reference to the origins of Chautauqua in forests and prairies of the Middle West; Factors that contribute to Chautauqua's appeal to Western boosters; Perceptions of the nineteenth-century urban development in the region; Projection by Chautauqua's Western boosters of an innovative vision of imaginative democracy deeply rooted in older modes of racial and moral authority.

Explores the role of women as city boosters in California. Reference to urban development related activities of California women; Implications of the increasing membership of women in chambers of commerce throughout the state in the 1910s and the 1920s; Reevaluation of interpretations of women's public work away from models stressing gender identity, moral and social reform, and political activism; Assertion that urban growth and development offered unlimited potential for economic prosperity that could be realized through the careful marketing of California.

Explores the concept of boosterism and townsite development along the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad in South Dakota. Impact of the so-called “great Dakota bust” on railroad expansion plans; Inception of an impressive townsite development and booster program as an important corollary of the management of Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad (M&Stl); Construction of a collection of secondary main lines and branches to dominate the eastern part of the state; Role of M&Stl townsite agent Thomas A. Way in the establishment of communities along the M&Stl lines.

Explores the important role played by the Chicago Western Railroad and Iowa Townsite Co. in the urban development of Iowa. Extent of Chicago Western Railroad's participation in townmaking; Discussion on the strategy of townbuilding in the region; Benefits of the development and promotion of Iowa's townsites; Factors that contributed to the failure in Iowa Townsite Co.'s scientific planning.

Explores the influence of boosterism on the migration of African Americans in the West. Contribution of overzealous boosterism to the Kansas exodus; Adjustment of promotional efforts by boosters in the surrounding states in order to discourage overflow from the exodus; Publicity over the exodus that alerted some speculators to the profit potential of the black settler market; Conclusions implying that boosters regardless of color employed a common national assumption to which both blacks and white could relate.

Provides an overview of the Western American boosterism. Definition of boosterism; Factors that contributed to the inception of boosters; Role of boosters in the development of the West; Reference to the many facets of Western American boosterism.