History 332

Urban Life I:  Environmental History, and Community within a Regional Network

  • William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis:  Chicago and the Great West (1992).  Note: read the Prologue and Part I (5-93); skim Part II (97-259); read Part III and the Epilogue (263-385).

Further reading:

  • Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” (American Historical Association, 1893), reprinted in Turner, The Frontier in American History (1920).  e-Reserve
  • Donald Worster, et.al., “A Round Table:  Environmental History,” Journal of American History 76.4 (March 1990), 1087-1147.  JSTOR.

Questions:

  • How do we locate this study in our on-going exploration of community in American history?
  • How does Cronon set up his study?  How does he organize his discussion?  Why?  What perspectives does he use to locate Chicago?  What do each of these reveal about the community?
  • How does Cronon characterize the layers of interactions and relationships that surround the community?  What was local and what was translocal?  What did “community” mean to the inhabitants of Chicago and of the Great West?  What assumptions, expectations, and measures did they use to characterize community?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of narrating the history of a community in this way?