Article Critique: Cronon

As Professor Downey mentioned in lecture, the author William Cronon is a Vilas Research Professor in UW-Madison. His studies focus on American environmental history and the history of the American West. This book Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, was awarded several prizes such as the Chicago Tribune 's Heartland Prize for the best literary work of non-fiction and Bancroft Prize for the best work of American history. It ranked #19,847 in Amazon Best Sellers Rank and received 4.7 out of 5 stars in customer reviews.

In chapter 7 “The Busy Hive” of the book Nature’s Metropolis, William Cronon describes the how the merchant’s world in Midwest changed from pre-railroad to post-railroad. In pre-railroad times, two of the biggest problems for a frontier merchant are getting information about supply and demand, and winter. Before railroad was built, frontier merchant depended on river for shipping goods. However, finding a market to sell those goods depends on luck. When receiving news from buyer, it was often times too late to ship the goods to the buyer before someone else does. As for winter, it locked up capital. Winter not only made it more difficult for customers to come or for merchants to restock goods, it also stopped the flowing of money, which means sending goods to buyers, because of frozen rivers. After railroad was built, the nature of the marketplace changed. Shipments depended heavily on railroad rather than rivers. Goods can now be transport in shorter time and lower cost, and so as people. Railroad solved the problems that frontier merchants were facing before, but also created new problems for them. “The railroad brought country and city closer together,” and a merchant no longer needs as much money as one did before to start a business and to success. This resulted in intense competition between merchants, forcing merchants who invested on the “old” ways to adopt to the “new” ways. Hiring “drummers” and buying advertisements in newspapers or magazines also became new ways of doing business for Chicago wholesale merchants. Although the establishment of railroads, the beginning of advertisements in newspaper of magazines, the introduce of mail order catalogs and other changes in marketplace help flourished economy and brought city and country closer, it “also concealed the very linkages it was creating.”

This change in market can be seen happening in the present markets, only differs in the “thing” that pushes the change. While the changes took place in the nineteenth century Midwest when railroads were built, the changes took place and continue to change with the introducing of internet. Just ask around your friends whether they have shopped online before, I believe the answer will almost be yes. Internet, just like railroads depicted in the chapter, “meant speed…meant year round movement…It meant the future.” Also, just like the mail order catalogs, you can look through the lists of things, pick out the things you want, send the mail and wait comfortably at home, and now it is the same, just on screens instead of prints, and with one-click instead of one mail. It might seem very reasonable for our generation that the economy runs like this, and it was probably the same for generation of mail order catalogs. Change is the only thing that does not change. It is important for us to think more about how this market runs, and why it runs like this instead of other ways. The understanding of this market will make us less of a part of the machine (or a bee of the busy hive), and more of a individual knowing what differences we will bring rather than what differences will be brought to us.