On Nature's Metropolis

This is a really important story to tell, both for making sense of the history of the American West, and for reframing the way we see the world in everyday life.

On the first level, I think Cronon makes a strong case that the “Great West” (everything from Lake Michigan to the Pacific) shaped Chicago, turning it into a towering metropolis. Grain, lumber, and animals (especially hogs and steer) were all brought to Chicago, where they were processed into other goods like bread, edible meat, and construction materials before being either shipped outward or consumed within the city. At the same time, Chicago shaped the Great West by functioning as an economic center. Trains centered around Chicago, bypassing the great rivers of the United States, where they were then linked to the east (especially to the American North but, to lesser extent, to the South).

At the same time, Cronon’s view that cities and the countryside cannot be cleanly delineated is absolutely true, and this is especially apparent to me as someone from the suburbs. To us, Chicago isn’t just the city, it’s the whole metropolitan structure that extends nearly 100 outwards. I like to joke that I’m from “world’s end,” because my family’s house is effectively on the last street before everything becomes countryside. But, it really isn’t world’s end. In spite of appearances, the influence of Chicago expanded (economically and socially, and still maintains its grasp) as far outward as other Midwestern states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and as far as the Great Plains—in the period under study, I think there’s a strong case that Chicago’s orbit did extend all the way to the Pacific. It’s a center for people, goods, cultural life, and so on. The city could not, and cannot, exist without its “hinterlands.” The level of economic development experienced by the “hinterlands” also would not be the case without the city.

Really interesting stuff to chew on here. It seems obvious, but I hadn’t really heard the case made in these terms before. It helps that Cronon writes in such beautiful prose.