Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. W.W. Norton, 1991.Bill Cronon is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at UW–Madison. He is a leading historian on environmental issues as well as the development of Chicago.
In his book, he explains how Chicago rose from a small Midwestern town of just a few thousand people to one of the big U.S. cities in only a few decades. The city's position as a focal point for the meatpacking and farming industries blossomed as a result of the railway connecting it with the East Coast and the invention of the refrigerated rail car.
Even though the book is principally about Chicago, much is written about the surrounding area of Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Madison's particular contribution was ice. Lakes Mendota and Monona supplied ice that cooled those refrigerated boxcars.
Just the thing on a hot summer day! Read more about Professor Malpezzi's Reading for Life list here and catch up on previous posts in the series here.
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