Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Prologue

Part 1, Chapters 1-2

Part 2, Chapters 3-5

Part 3, Chapters 6-8

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Key Figures

William Cronon

William Cronon is the author of Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West published in 1991. Cronon is an environmental historian, writer, and professor specializing in the history of the American West and the human relationship to the natural world. He served as the president of the American Society for Environmental History from 1994 to 2014.

Cronon’s best-known work is 1983’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. In it, he discussed how an economy is shaped by its participants’ attitudes toward property rights, which in turn affects the ecology of the surrounding area.

In a New York Times article, journalist Janny Scott credits Cronon with “having radically widened many environmental historians’ gaze beyond such things as forests and public lands to include cities and what Cronon calls the ‘elaborate and intimate linkages’ between city and country” (Scott, Janny. “An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed ‘Wilderness’ and Even the Indians’ Place in It.” New York Times. 3 Apr. 1990).

Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson Turner is a 20th-century historian and professor best known for his frontier thesis. His most well-known essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” presented the theories that would eventually shape the thesis. The paper was read to the American Historical Association at the World’s Fair in 1893 and laid the foundation for the idea that westward expansion directly impacted the successes and attitudes of the United States.

The boosters

The “boosters” refers to a group of writers and philosophers who championed utopian visions of Chicago. The collection of fiction and newspaper writers often painted Chicago, or any city they wished to promote, as the central location of economic wealth and well-being. Descriptions in these writings were aimed at creating a sense of awe and wonderment, often invoking the desire to move to the city.

Johann Heinrich von Thünen

Johann Heinrich von Thünen was a 19th-century economist born in Germany who created an analytical economic model to help understand how geography impacted the growth of rural areas. His theories rested on the idea of the city as an “isolated state” surrounded by wilderness with no access to substantial geographical features such as rivers or mountains. Under this theory, farmers are responsible for transporting crops to market via oxcart on roadless terrain. Cronon uses von Thünen’s theory as a starting point in understanding Chicago’s growth, demonstrating how the theory can be expanded when placed in historical context.