A meticulous, weighty study of the interrelationship of Chicago and
the western frontier during the last half of the 19th century, told
in terms of what Cronon (History/ Yale; Changes in the Land, 1983)
calls the "commodity flows" of grain, lumber, and meat. "The
history of the Great West," Cronon writes, "is a long dialogue
between the place we call city and the place we call country." By
following the development and transport needs of the grain, meat,
and lumber industries, he shows that the growth of Chicago had as
much to do with eastern business interests as it did with any
notions of pioneer spirit. Chicago became "a junction of Eastern
means and Western opportunities." When the Illinois and Michigan
Canal opened in 1848, it was an attempt to improve on the already
marginal waterways of the Chicago River and the Great Lakes. By
1852, more than half the city's wheat arrived by railroad; by the
end of the decade, Cronon notes, over 2,500 miles of track had been
added in Illinois. The growth and fortunes of the city, he says,
depended on climatic and economic conditions of the western lands
and settlements - and vice-versa. The organization of the Board of
Trade and its institution of a standard grain-grading system in the
1850's, coupled with technological advances such as the telegraph,
elevator warehouses, and improving rail systems, assured Chicago's
position as Gateway City, despite stiff competition from St. Louis.
Cronon shows, however, how Chicago became "very much a victim of
its own success. By combining with the railroads to open so large a
market for so vast a region, it had encouraged the human migration,
environmental changes, and economic developments that produced
other great cities" whose emergence by the turn of the century
diluted Chicago's domination in the handling and transport of huge
quantities of raw materials and wholesale products. An abundance of
material, adequately presented and copiously footnoted. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Awarded the 1992 Bancroft Prize and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award for Best Nonfiction Book of 1991 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.
"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
"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. . . . Likely to become a small classic. . . . Illuminating. . . . Brilliant."—Donald L. Miller, New York Times Book Review
"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
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