Brad Lyerla's Reviews > Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

NATURE’S METROPOLIS is the best non-fiction book about Chicago that I have read. As a starting point, Cronon explains Chicago’s unique place in American history by describing its growth in relation to the natural advantages that it enjoyed economically being located at the touchpoint between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system.

But there is much more too, of course. With the help of New York financiers, Chicago’s energetic promoters were faster and more sure-footed than their competitors to exploit the lumber, grain, meat, transportation, retail and related financial markets associated with the opening of what was then called the Great West.

Economic histories are a special genre. Cronon seems unusually talented in this genre and NATURE’S METROPOLIS is an impressive achievement. It is one of my favorites and I recommend it highly.