Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West
Cronon's history of 19th-century Chicago is in fact the history  of the widespread effects of a single city on millions of square miles of  ecological, cultural, and economic frontier. Cronon combines archival accuracy,  ecological evaluation, and a sweeping understanding of the impact of  railroads, stockyards, catalog companies, and patterns of property on the  design of development of the entire inland United States to this date.  Although focused on Chicago and the U.S., the general lessons it teaches  are of global significance, and a rich source of metaphors for the ways  in which colonization of physical space operates differently from, and  similarly to, colonization of cyberspace. This is a compelling, wise,  thorough--and thoroughly accessible--masterpiece of history writ large.  Very Highest Recommendation.