William Cronon

William Cronon (born September 11, 1954) is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he obtained a D.Phil from Jesus College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. (1976–1978).^[1] Cronon holds B.A. (1976) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He holds an M.A. (1979), M.Phil. (1980), and Ph.D. (1990) from Yale.

Changes in the Land

A noted environmental historian,^[2] Cronon is probably best known as the author of Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (1983), a work based on his doctoral dissertation. Two insights in that book have reshaped the way historians think. The first insight was that the way cultures conceptualize property and ownership is a major factor in affecting economies and ecosystems. The second was that the Indians were active intervenors in and shapers of the ecosystems in which they lived.^[3]

Scholarship

Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991) (which won the Bancroft Prize in 1992),^[1] "is credited with having radically widened many environmental historians' gaze beyond such things as forests and public lands to include cities and what Cronon calls the 'elaborate and intimate linkages' between city and country."^[4]

In his essay, "The Trouble with Wilderness,", published in the [[New York Times" and in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (1995), Cronon revisits and expands on a theme first presented in Changes in the Land, insisting on the obsolescence of the idea if unchanged wilderness because all ecosystems are constantly interacting with and being altered by the humans who live in them.^[5]

In July, 1985, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.^[6]

In a study of a ghost town in Alaska, Cronon has shown that places depend on other places for their existence.^[7]

Cronon serves on the board of directors for The Trust for Public Land.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Old Members News and Notes". The Jesus College Record: 48. 1993/4. 
2. ^ An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed 'Wilderness' and Even the Indians' Place in It, New York times, April 3, 1999 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E4DB1239F930A35757C0A96F958260&scp=3&sq=%22william+Cronon%22&st=nyt
3. ^ An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed 'Wilderness' and Even the Indians' Place in It, New York times, April 3, 1999 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E4DB1239F930A35757C0A96F958260&scp=3&sq=%22william+Cronon%22&st=nyt
4. ^ An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed 'Wilderness' and Even the Indians' Place in It, New York times, April 3, 1999 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E4DB1239F930A35757C0A96F958260&scp=3&sq=%22william+Cronon%22&st=nyt
5. ^ An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed 'Wilderness' and Even the Indians' Place in It, New York times, April 3, 1999 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E4DB1239F930A35757C0A96F958260&scp=3&sq=%22william+Cronon%22&st=nyt
6. ^ An Environmentalist on a Different Path; A Fresh View of the Supposed 'Wilderness' and Even the Indians' Place in It, New York times, April 3, 1999 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E4DB1239F930A35757C0A96F958260&scp=3&sq=%22william+Cronon%22&st=nyt
7. ^ "Place, A Short Introduction", Tim Cresswell

External links

• William Cronon's homepage
• Experimental Art Video, "Wilderness Trouble," inspired by Cronon's groundbreaking "The Trouble with Wilderness"

This biography of an American historian is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article about a U.S. scientist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.