Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

A commodity market refers to the buying and selling of raw materials to produce larger finished products. The marketplace is often categorized as either a hard commodity, such as natural resources, or soft commodities, such as agriculture. Cronon pinpoints commodity markets of the 19th century as having the most substantial impact on ecological and human communities.

The term “frontier” has long been associated with the vast open spaces of the prairies. More modern definitions suggest that the frontier makes up areas where markets do not tend to reach. Cronon addresses concerns about the ideological, racist, and sexist connotations that come with the term “frontier.” However, Cronon does not believe that a change in the vocabulary will change these perceptions. The frontier is the expansion of metropolitan economy into regions not previously dependent on these markets (15).

The phrase “The Great West” refers to an abstract region of America that, according to Cronon, no longer exists in the minds of Americans. In the 19th century, it referred to an area that was neither north or south but rather the vast openness that began at the Ohio River or Lake Michigan and stretched to the Pacific Ocean.

These are areas that exist in the realm between the city and the wilderness. They are often home to small towns that make a living supplying a natural resource to city markets. Cronon uses the development of these rural areas to demonstrate how remote areas develop in direct proportion to the demand for natural resources by urban markets.