 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(July 2018) |
Boosterism is the act of promoting ("boosting") a town, city, or organization, with the goal of improving public perception of it. Boosting can be as simple as talking up the entity at a party or as elaborate as establishing a visitors' bureau. It has been somewhat associated with American small towns.
During the expansion of the American and Canadian West, boosterism became epidemic as the leaders and owners of small towns made extravagant predictions for their settlement, in the hope of attracting more residents and, not coincidentally, inflating the prices of local real estate. During the nineteenth century, competition for economic success among newly founded cities led to overflow of booster literature that listed the visible signs of growth, cited statistics on population and trade and looked to local geography for town success reasons. [1]
The 1871 humorous speech The Untold Delights of Duluth , delivered by Democratic U.S. Representative J. Proctor Knott, lampooned boosterism. Boosterism is also a major theme of two novels by Sinclair Lewis — Main Street (published 1920) and Babbitt (1922). As indicated by an editorial that Lewis wrote in 1908 entitled "The Needful Knocker", boosting was the opposite of knocking. The editorial explained:
The booster's enthusiasm is the motive force which builds up our American cities. Granted. But the hated knocker's jibes are the check necessary to guide that force. In summary then, we do not wish to knock the booster, but we certainly do wish to boost the knocker. [2] [3]
The short story "Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg" (1917) by P.G. Wodehouse includes an encounter with a convention visiting from the fictional town of Birdsburg, Missouri who talk up their town:
"You should pay it a visit," he said. "The most rapidly-growing city in the country. Boost for Birdsburg!" "Boost for Birdsburg!" said the other chappies reverently.
Boosting is also done in political settings, especially in regard to disputed policies or controversial events. The UK prime minister Boris Johnson is strongly associated with such behaviour. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters."
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County. Duluth has a population of 86,697, making it Minnesota's fourth-largest city and the center of Minnesota's second largest metropolitan area, with a population of 278,799. Duluth forms a metropolitan area with neighboring Superior, Wisconsin; together, they are called the Twin Ports. The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the area's first known European explorer.
Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.
Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. Located north of Interstate 85, it is approximately 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Atlanta.
The Disney animators' strike in 1941 reflected anger at inequities of pay and privileges at the non-unionized Walt Disney Productions. Walt Disney responded to the five-week strike by firing many of his animators, but was eventually pressured into recognizing the Screen Cartoonist's Guild (SCG).
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who exposed established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They typically had large audiences in popular magazines. The modern term generally references investigative journalism or watchdog journalism; investigative journalists in the US are often informally called "muckrakers".
Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Lewis in 1930.
Main Street is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis, and published in 1920.
Winnemac is a fictional U.S. state invented by the writer Sinclair Lewis. His novel Babbitt takes place in Zenith, its largest city. Winnemac is also a setting for Gideon Planish, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dodsworth.
Joanne Kate Swinson is a former British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 22 July to 13 December 2019. She was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position, as well as the holder of the post for the shortest period of time. Swinson served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Dunbartonshire from 2005 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019. In September 2020 Swinson became Director of Partners for a New Economy (P4NE).
James Proctor Knott was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky and served as the 29th Governor of Kentucky from 1883 to 1887. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Missouri in 1850 and began his political career there. He served as Missouri Attorney General from 1859 to 1861, when he resigned rather than swear an oath of allegiance to the federal government just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Veronica Judith Colleton Wadley, Baroness Fleet, is the chairman of Arts Council London and board member of Arts Council England (2010–present). She was a senior advisor to the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson (2012–2016) and the chairman of the London Music Fund from 2012 to 2016, where she remains a Trustee. She is also a non-executive director of the Berkeley Group and an independent Director of Times Newspapers Holdings.
Elmer Gantry is a 1960 American drama film about a confidence man and a female evangelist selling religion to small-town America. Adapted by director Richard Brooks, the film is based on the 1927 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis, and stars Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones, and Patti Page.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since July 2019. He was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. Johnson has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was previously MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008. He has been described as adhering to the ideology of one-nation and national conservatism.
Elsie Knocker, later Baroness de T'Serclaes, was a British nurse and ambulance driver in World War I who, together with her friend Mairi Chisholm, won numerous medals for bravery and for saving the lives of thousands of soldiers on the Western Front in Belgium. Dubbed "The Madonnas of Pervyse" by the press, the two were among the most photographed women of the war.
Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev, Baron Lebedev is a Russian-British businessman, who owns Lebedev Holdings Ltd, which owns the Evening Standard, The Independent and the TV channel London Live. He is the son of the Russian oligarch and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev.
The Man Who Knew Coolidge is a 1928 satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis. It features the return of several characters from Lewis' previous works, including George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Additionally, it sees a return to the familiar territory of Lewis' fictional American city of Zenith, in the state of Winnemac. Presented as six long, uninterrupted monologues by Lowell Schmalz, a travelling salesman in office supplies, the eponymous first section was originally published in The American Mercury in 1927.
Charlotte Maria Offlow Johnson Wahl was a British artist. She was the mother of Boris Johnson, prime minister of the United Kingdom since 2019, as well as the journalist Rachel Johnson and the politician Jo Johnson.
Lee Benjamin Rowley is a Conservative Party politician and former management consultant who was elected as the MP for North East Derbyshire at the 2017 general election. It was a notable Conservative gain as Rowley defeated the sitting Labour MP Natascha Engel, in a seat which had been represented by the Labour Party since 1935.
Carrie Johnson is a British political activist, conservationist, and the wife of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson. She works as a senior advisor to the ocean conservation charity Oceana.
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