In Nature’s Metropolis’ <\/em>second chapter Rails and Water, <\/em>Cronon speaks of the “second nature” that the new American city had created as it expanded its city limits and economic influence within the region.\u00a0 Pertaining to the man-made creations that allowed for the city to expand its commercial opportunities, the “second nature” of Chicago changed the geographical landscape of the region to fit the economic needs of the city.\u00a0 However, the growth of Chicago coinciding with the development of the waterways reinforced the boosters ideals of a “new Rome” as the city now had access to larger economic ambitions.\u00a0 The growth\u00a0 of the city also saw the rise of the farming class as a vital contributor to the growing economy, making use of the new waterways to transport their goods to the city to obtain better pricing for their goods.\u00a0 Unlike the river fed cities of Peoria and Springfield, the desire for goods in Chicago created a large demand for crops and created a prosperous economic environment for the farming community that fed the city and the surrounding areas.\u00a0 John Kane has said of Cronon’s view of Chicago to be a “romanticized emotion attached to [Chicago] and its history [creating] a bias toward the importance of the city,” however this would negate the influence that Chicago had as a cultural and economic center for the region.\u00a0 Rivaling its East Coast counterparts in economic ability, Chicago became a center for cultural integration between different societal groups that would otherwise not interact.\u00a0 With merchants and farmers exchanging goods, Chicago became a place in which both the urban and rural communities melded together and created a thriving economy not based on a single product.\u00a0 Though Cronon does create a romantic image of Chicago as an ever changing city, Chicago itself is a city based in its own unique culture that combines both agrarian and industrial communities within its city to create a diverse and thriving economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Nature’s Metropolis’ second chapter Rails and Water, Cronon speaks of the “second nature” that the new American city had created as it expanded its city limits and economic influence within the region.\u00a0 Pertaining to the man-made creations that allowed for the city to expand its commercial opportunities, the “second nature” of Chicago changed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-spring2017\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}