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William Cronon
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Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West Revised ed. Edition

by William Cronon (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 352 ratings
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A Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and Winner of the Bancroft Prize. "No one has written a better book about a city…Nature's Metropolis is elegant testimony to the proposition that economic, urban, environmental, and business history can be as graceful, powerful, and fascinating as a novel." ―Kenneth T. Jackson, Boston Globe

In this groundbreaking work, William Cronon gives us an environmental perspective on the history of nineteenth-century America. By exploring the ecological and economic changes that made Chicago America's most dynamic city and the Great West its hinterland, Mr. Cronon opens a new window onto our national past. This is the story of city and country becoming ever more tightly bound in a system so powerful that it reshaped the American landscape and transformed American culture. The world that emerged is our own.

Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize

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  1. ISBN-10
    9780393308730
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393308730
  3. Edition
    Revised ed.
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    May 17, 1992
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.1 x 1.6 x 9.3 inches
  8. Print length
    592 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cronon's history of 19th-century Chicago is in fact the history of the widespread effects of a single city on millions of square miles of ecological, cultural, and economic frontier. Cronon combines archival accuracy, ecological evaluation, and a sweeping understanding of the impact of railroads, stockyards, catalog companies, and patterns of property on the design of development of the entire inland United States to this date. Although focused on Chicago and the U.S., the general lessons it teaches are of global significance, and a rich source of metaphors for the ways in which colonization of physical space operates differently from, and similarly to, colonization of cyberspace. This is a compelling, wise, thorough--and thoroughly accessible--masterpiece of history writ large. Very Highest Recommendation.

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"This book is the story of Chicago's progress in the 19th century, the rough seduction of the hinterland, and how at its zenith the city ruled the commercial life of a vast inland region more completely and ruthlessly and profitably than any czar ruled Russia…A marvelous book."
― Ward Just, Chicago Tribune

"Thoroughly original…Illuminating…Brilliant."
― Donald L. Miller, New York Times Book Review

"No one has ever written a better book about a city…No one has written about Chicago with more power, clarity and intelligence than Cronon."
― Kenneth T. Jackson, Boston Globe

"An intoxicating piece of scholarship and enterprise…It is really a work of biography: a look at the life of Chicago."
― David Shribman, Wall Street Journal

"Nature's Metropolis is that rare historical work which treats nature and the moral force we derive from it seriously…The roots of the modern environmental predicament are plainly visible in the economic dynamism that brought about the rise of Chicago in the mid-nineteenth century, which is a captivating story in its own right."
― Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New Yorker

"Magnificent…the best work of economic and business history I've ever read."
― Paul Krugman

"William Cronon challenges many of the conventions of both urban and western history in this pathbreaking book, and does so with unusual intelligence and elegance. More important, he helps lay the groundwork for a vital new field of scholarship: the history of the natural environment and its relationship to human society."
― Alan Brinkley, Columbia University

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0393308731
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Revised ed. edition (May 17, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780393308730
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393308730
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1.6 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 352 ratings

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William Cronon

William Cronon

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
352 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David Fulmer
5.0 out of 5 stars Very well-researched history of Chicago’s relationship to the ecology of the West
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014
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This is an academic book which describes in great detail the rise of Chicago from a fur trading post to a major metropolis capable of putting on a World’s Fair of great beauty, attracting visitors from around the world. The author, William Cronon, has a thorough knowledge of his subject and the footnotes and bibliography collect an exhaustive list of sources for every possible angle on the development of Chicago in the nineteenth century.

His thesis that the history of a city and its surrounding countryside cannot be told separately leads him to an exploration of many of the important industries which shaped the environment of the midwest during the nineteenth century. There’s an excellent account of the development of the grain trade and its far-reaching effects as farmers split up the land into plots on which to grow their crops and the the skyline of Chicago was reshaped with the construction of numerous grain elevators to store and distribute the crops from the west both locally and in eastern markets via the railroad. Another chapter describes the lumber industry which was almost a city within the city and inspired loggers in Wisconsin and Michigan to reduce numerous pine forests to vast cutover districts.

Sections on the meat packing industry and the mail order catalog businesses of Montgomery Ward and Sears are enriched with many details that demonstrate both the effect the city had on its more sparsely populated hinterland and the way in which the ecology of the region drove changes in the area and was changed by the development of the concentrated settlement of people. Cronon enlivens what can at times be dry historical material with stories about the inventions and the technology that accelerated change in the American west like the the refrigerated railroad car, barbed wire, and the balloon frame house.

Another focus of the book is the capital flows that promoted and supported the development of Chicago and the west. From real estate speculation in the 1830s to the coming of the railroads a few decades later, many of the changes to Chicago were financed by investors in the east. Cronon also did extensive research into the credit and debt of bankrupts in the 1870s to illustrate the extent of the commercial connections that played such an important role in the growth of Chicago.

This is an important, fascinating history of Chicago and the west, of its businesses and industries, its ecologies and environments. Cronon has succeeded in making the history of Chicago during the nineteenth century both historically interesting and fascinating on a more personal level by describing the rise and decline of industries and corporations as well as the stories of individuals including entrepreneurs, farmers, and workers who both caused and reacted to, sometimes unsuccessfully, the changes brought on by the growth of Chicago. It’s detailed, engrossing, and full of interesting, provocative ideas.
16 people found this helpful
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MMD
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Study of How Chicago Became Chicago
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024
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This is a wonderful book about how Chicago came to be Chicago -- and how the whole landscape of the Midwest was changed. It tells the story of the canal, the railroads, the lumber industry, the meat-packing industry, the McCormick reaper, grain elevators, futures trading, the world's fair, and much more. Although I thought it started slowly, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the middle and the end. Highly recommended!
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Marc and Susan Osborne
5.0 out of 5 stars Original and fascinating work of economic and ecological history
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2020
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This wonderful book defies easy classification. It's a history of Chicago in the second half of the nineteenth century, it doesn't describe the people and events ordinarily found in a history book. It doesn't name the prominent people or describe the decisions they took. It is better understood as an economic history, but there's not a lot of statistics or economic theory. It's a history of the development of Chicago's economy with an emphasis on the relationship of that economic activity to the underlying ecology of the Western United States. Cronon's discussion of the development of the grain, timber, and livestock industries is particularly thorough and interesting. Just a terrific book. One word of warning: the book was originally published in the early 90s, and Cronon spends a lot of time discussing the Romantic "back to nature" version of environmentalism that was more common in that era. His point is to insist that the city of Chicago and its rural hinterland are dependent on each other for their development and that the city is as "natural" as the countryside or as regions developed for purposes of tourism. I agree completely with his point, but I think many fewer people today need to be convinced.
3 people found this helpful
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Beth M
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting insight into the formation of the American West
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2016
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excellent insight into the Chicago metropolis and Great Lakes great contribution to America's westward expansion. The topic was interesting,insightful and has not been covered historically in the past from this pivotal perspective.
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RobMarch
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic - A life changing read.
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023
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This is one of those books that will expand your worldview in more ways than can be explained. From a historic, economic, and cultural perspective there are few books that will show you so much about the world at large while explaining one central point in beautiful, illuminating detail.
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Tascha F.
5.0 out of 5 stars The pin on the map that says: You are here.
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is a perfect book in my mind and, and it has inspired some excellent reviews here, many of which provide useful overviews and reviews of its contents. If a genie appeared and granted me one wish, I would chose to remember every world of every book I deemed worthy of carrying about with me. This is one of those books.

There is no need to add to the many wonderful reviews in that vein (which I will return to as part of my own review of this book), but I will add my more sense impression of this work.

So much of our national identity as an exceptional people owes itself to the profligate exploitation of natural resources by those who arrogated to themselves every available resource and often the labor of others. Chicago is central to and emblematic of our cultural answer to all existential questioning –that our meaning can be found in bending nature to the will of man such that we no longer recognize our constructs as nature's work.

Today we find ourselves as a cluster of narcissus flowers, bending towards our own reflections, no longer able to admire ourselves as many of our lakes are drained or are too murky with our own pollution. Such narcissism challenged, so much anger is emerging. In this hard time, this book helps to catalog what I witness in a way that gives me at least the comfort that comes from recognizing order in what appears as chaos.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Javier Lara Flores
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno
Reviewed in Mexico on July 26, 2020
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Tenía tiempo buscandolo
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Daniel Wolkowicz
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book
Reviewed in Canada on March 15, 2020
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I was assigned this book for a university course on the history of capitalism. Out of the four books assigned, this one was the longest, (400+ pages) yet, somehow, the easiest to read.
Cronon studies the formation of the city of Chicago and its hinterlands by tracking the flow of commodities and capital between them. By all accounts, this should be a tedious and boring read. However, Cronon is an amazing author. He writes in a way that captures the reader's attention and holds it all the way through. If you are assigned this book, don't dread it, but give yourself time to read it carefully. It's not an easy journey, but it is an interesting one.
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John Copleston
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2014
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A superb account of the economic rise of Chicago and its impact on the Midwest
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DMC
4.0 out of 5 stars Good historical introduction to Chicago
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2013
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This book was recommended to me by a friend who is studying for a doctorate in environmental history under William Cronon. I read the book ahead of my first ever trip to Chicago (and other parts of the American Mid-West) and the book certainly served as a good historical introduction to the area, especially the astonishingly fast growth of Chicago: the relationship between that metropolis and its natural hinterland is vividly described. While the book is of interest to a general reader such as myself, it will certainly be of more interest to students and academics in the field of Environmental History.
One person found this helpful
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Anna MK
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2015
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Good
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