Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman Review

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Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman ReviewSmith has made perhaps a unique association between the events chronicled in his book. The 1871 Chicago Fire. The 1886 Haymarket bombing. And the making of Pullman town. His descriptions of each are well done and quite readable. For this alone, it can worthwhile to peruse his writings, as he explains the circumstances of each. Of the events, perhaps the Chicago Fire is the best remembered. While the other 2 are relegated to the scrutiny of professional historians.
I am unsure that despite his eloquent arguments, the events can be tied together as he so disposes. The presumed urban outlook shared by Americans of a century ago was shaped by many things. Maybe the events in the book were influential, but not decisive.Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman Overview

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A Natural History of the Chicago Region (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places) Review

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A Natural History of the Chicago Region (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places) ReviewWhat makes this book unique and so valuable is that it pulls together a wide diversity of material into a unified whole. To access equivalent information one would have to consult hundreds of separate sources (indeed, the bibliography includes approximately 500 entries.) Greenberg paints a complete picture of the natural history of the greater Chicago area, from southwestern Michigan around the lake into southeastern Wisconsin, with a wide-ranging view of the geology, ecosystems, flora, and fauna. I have been a resident of this area for 50 years and always had a keen interest in nature, but reading this book I realized how little I actually knew about my surroundings. I was saddened at many points while reading of what has been destroyed here in the past 300 years. Greenberg's accounts of this violence are neither shrill nor hand-wringing, and he injects hope for what can yet be saved and how. This wonderful book has a place on the shelves of all nature lovers in the greater Chicago area, and is an absolute must for all public and school libraries!A Natural History of the Chicago Region (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places) Overview

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Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (Urban and Industrial Environments) Review

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Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (Urban and Industrial Environments) ReviewI came across this book while doing research on community-based organizations and the environment in Chicago. It's very informative because it gives a historical overview of Chicago's waste management, and because it gets into the nitty-gritty of conflicts within nonprofits in Chicago. There were a couple places though where I had to raise my eyebrow because the analysis seemed a little suspect. For example, the author uses cases of illegal dumping in Chicago to show how minority groups may be more concerned with recycling and the environment than is often thought in mainstream environmental organizations. It seems a little strange to equate recycling centers, and companies that only call themselves recyclers but are actually illegal dumpers.Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago (Urban and Industrial Environments) Overview

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Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West Review

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Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West Review"Nature's Metropolis" is first, and foremost a naartive about the rise of Chicago in the 19th century. Being very similar in tone to the author's first book "Changes in the Land" (1983). Cronon seeks to establish in "Nature's Metropolis" that any understanding of the American west can not truly be comprehended unless one looks at the dominant role that Chicago played in ordering the landscape between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. By arguing that the two (city and countryside) are linked, Cronon is directly refuting the Frontier Thesis of Fredick jackson Turner - which held that the frontier (countryside) existed in isolation of the city. This is then the major premise of the book; that human actions are very much determined by the landscape.
In building his case Cronon presents some excellent case studies of the Rail+Canal, wheat, forestry and meat packing industries in Chicago, and how they helped to turn the city into a first-rank metropolitan centre. Chapter #3 on wheat is especially interesting as Cronon describes how the Board of Trade revolutionized the exchange of grain by turning the physical crop into an abstract commodity that could be easily traded amongst merchants, traders and farmers. Central to this was of course the implementation of a standardized grading system.
A final note, one of the more intriguing aspects of the book was Cronon's use of the terms "first" and "second nature". These are two concepts which he explains in the preface are derived from Hegelian and Marxist interpretations of nature - yet he does not give the reader too much more of an insight. Essentially, "first nature" is a realm where species (be they plant, animal, human) succeeded and failed mainly because of circumstances encountered within their immediate habitats. "Second nature" (such as a city like Chicago and all of its built-up environs) would put economic pressures on species hundreds of miles away - effectively altering the landscapes of these places. Unfortunately, in discussions about Cronon's book these two concepts do not really generate much debate. I find them to be very fascinating and wish they had been better explained in the book. If you too are intersted in these concepts of "first" and "second nature" I think the recent book by Steven Stoll "The Fruits of Natural Advantage" (1998) would be a good place to start - it is next up on my reading list!Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West Overview

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