• views: 68
• date: 3 January 2026
• posted by: book24h

In the 1890s, the bicycle became a sensation that impacted the whole of society. People flocked to races while Progressive Era reformers boosted bicycle-related benefits that ranged from fitness to women's rights. As American industry exported two-wheelers around the globe, Chicago and Illinois emerged as a center of bicycle manufacturing. Tracking the bicycle's up-and-down popularity, Christopher Sweet shows how the bicycle's varying fortunes affected the industry and the thousands of Illinoisians laboring for iconic brands like Schwinn and Western Wheel Works. He also details forgotten history such as the bicycle's many associations with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, national and international interest in Illinois bicycle races, and the role of the Illinois bicycle industry in the rise and fall of Midwest manufacturing. An engaging blend of social and business history,A History of Bicycling in Illinoisrediscovers the people, companies, and events that made Chicago and Illinois synonymous with the bicycle.| Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Primary Sources Introduction: "No One Can Touch Chicago" 1 Boneshakers and High-Wheels: Bicycles Arrive in Illinois (1867-1889) 2 The Great Bicycle Boom of the 1890s: How Illinois Became the Center of American Cycling 3 "Two-Thirds of All Bicycles": Illinois Bicycle Manufacturing 4 All the World Awheel: Bicycles at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition 5 The Great Emancipator: Women Take to the Wheel 6 Larger than Life: Bicycle Characters and Bicycle Culture 7 Scorchers and Cracks: Bicycle Racing 8 Demon Motors: Motorcycles, Automobiles, and the End of the Boom (1895-1920) 9 Booms and Busts: Illinois Bicycling in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Epilogue: A Bicycling Dream Deferred Notes Index Back Cover | "Sweet's book is a meticulously researched and eye-opening account of Illinois' centrality to bicycle history."
-Robert J. Turpin, author ofBlack Cyclists: The Race for Inclusion
"An indispensable guide to the history of cycling in-and beyond-Illinois."
-Evan Friss, author ofThe Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s
|Christopher Sweetis Information Literacy and Scholarly Communications Librarian and Professor at Illinois Wesleyan University's Ames Library.






   
   
   

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