The success of its baseball teams between 1901 and 1919 catapulted Chicago to the top of the sporting world. In those 19 seasons, Chicago teams won 9 pennants (10 if you count the 1915 Federal League title won by the Chicago Whales) and 4 world championships. Putting a gloss on an era of debilitating poverty, labor unrest, racial violence, and a world war, the winning ways of the teams created a welcome distraction from everyday life. This seminar will explore the connections between sport and society in an attempt to ascertain just what these teams symbolized to the city's residents.
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