A review by statman
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon

3.0

This is quite a different book than what I've read before. It is more of a book written from the perspective of an economist than from a typical historian. A different approach that takes some time getting used to. I started reading it once and couldn't finish it at the time because I had a hard time following what the author was saying. Started a second time much later and was able to finish and it got better by the end. It is very thought provoking and forces you to think about your place within the city/country dichotomy. In our modern society, we don't really think about where our food and other material goods come from, in contrast to life in the 1800's where people made everything that they consumed. The premise of this book is that the rise and history of Chicago illustrates the change from the older pastoral life styles we used to live and what made it possible for the modern life styles we now enjoy. It takes a while to get to that point in the closing chapters but once I got there, all the previous chapters made a lot more sense and I could see how the author was using the different approach to really make the point. I was expecting more of a general history of Chicago, which is not what this book is about.