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).[cite journal|journal=The Jesus College Record|year=1993/4|title=Old Members News and Notes|pages=48] 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, [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] Cronon is probably best known as the author of "" (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. [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]
cholarship
"Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West" (1991) (which won the Bancroft Prize in 1992),[ "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." [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] 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. [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] ]In July, 1985, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. [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]
In a study of a ghost town in Alaska, Cronon has shown that places depend on other places for their existence. ["Place, A Short Introduction", Tim Cresswell]
Cronon serves on the board of directors for The Trust for Public Land.
References
External links
* [http://www.williamcronon.net William Cronon's homepage]
* [http://www.ecoarttech.net/wildernesstrouble/index.htm Experimental Art Video, "Wilderness Trouble," inspired by Cronon's groundbreaking "The Trouble with Wilderness"]
