Review by Choice Review
Cronon describes Chicago's progress in the 19th century as an outcome of the Midwest's environmental legacy. He discusses patterns of geography, economics, business and trade, and transportation, but gives politics and personalities little attention. Great early growth was possible because of easy water transportation and nearby forest resources. Boosterism and the scandalous dispossession of Native Americans are highlighted, as are the grain and meat packing industries. The city's warehousing function was augmented by technological advances, especially the development of railroads, which were fast and unaffected by mud. Chicago had no true competitors, although St. Louis was similar. It was bested by Chicago interests who used questionable business ethics, as did Eastern bankers in their treatment of honest, hard-working Midwesterners. The 8 well-documented chapters, augmented by 6 graphs, 19 maps, and 22 photographs persuasively argue for Chicago's dominance through its agressive population and natural endowment. College, university, and public libraries. -A. J. Larson, University of Illinois at Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Many a history has been written about Chicago and its rapid growth into a world-class city, but none that takes the approach this one does. Cronon proceeds from the premise that Chicago was the most important city in shaping America during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He discloses the intimate connection between the city and the surrounding countryside and how one influenced the other so much that traditional boundaries between the urban and the rural dissolved. In doing this, Cronon redefines the concept of the western frontier and ultimately shows how changes and events during the 45 years preceding the city's first world's fair profoundly affected American life today. Dense with detail and scholarly in approach, Cronon's study focuses sharply upon what he believes were some of the key influ~ences upon Chicago's development: its natural geography, the development of waterways and railroads, the commodities markets, the meat industry, the lumber industry, centralized manufacturing and trade, and the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Not easy to read, the book is, however, rewarding in its fresh insights, uncliched conclusions, and the wealth of research it presents about a fascinating time of development. ~--Mary Ellen Sullivan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a fresh approach that links urban and frontier history, Cronon ( Changes in the Land ) explores the relationship between Chicago, 1848-1893, and the entire West, tracing the path between an urban market and the natural systems that supply it. Examining commodity flows--meat, grain, lumber--and the revolution in transportation and distribution, the book chronicles changes in the landscape: cattle replace buffalo; corn and wheat supplant prairie grasses; entire forests fall to the ax. Thus Wyoming cattle, Iowa corn and Wisconsin white pine come together in Chicago. City and countryside develop in tandem. Cronon notes that gateway cities are a peculiar feature of North American frontier settlements and the chief colonizers of the Western landscape. He compares the world of rural merchants in the pre- and post-railroad eras, and cites the McCormack reaper works to illustrate the sale of manufactured goods to the hinterland. The culmination of this dynamic period is in the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Readers interested in the growth of capitalism will find this an engrossing study. Photos. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Cronon (history, Yale) investigates the relationship between Chicago and the rural areas that comprised its hinterlands during the 19th century in terms of commodity flows--grain, lumber, and meat. Although the focus is on Chicago, the economic transformations he describes took place in many areas. His analysis is at its clearest in relating how the building of railroads led to a revolution in the grain trade and to the Chicago Board of Trade's dominance of grain prices. Soundly grounded in original sources, especially the federal court bankruptcy records used to map capital flows, this well-written study is a significant addition to the literature on U.S. economic history and should be acquired by all academic libraries.-- Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
