Palladio Vs Blackmar
The ambition to maximize profit alters the physical landscape and creates capital. The creation of capital—money, goods, or services—generates cities, roads, canals, and buildings that interconnect people. The nature of capitalism distributes capital unequally. When one person gains value, another person must lose value. A natural hierarchy in society develops where the top tiers consists of those who have amassed capital, while those with little capital comprise the bottom tiers. The abstract concept of rich and poor must manifest itself into some form of physical reality. A theme exists throughout many historians’ works on the development of cities; owners of the most capital constructed artificial barriers to separate themselves from those
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Cronon analyzes how the ecological and economical transformation of Chicago affects the landscape itself. Much of his work explores the centralization of power. The centralization of power results in the localization of capital. The resulting social hierarchy that forms bases itself in the corporate world rather than in an intrinsic belief or land scarcity, a noticeable difference from the likes of Palladio or Blackmar. The prominent force of the hierarchy comes from the corporate world creating “a kind of ‘second nature,’ designed by people and improved toward human ends” (Cronon 56). Second nature—mostly roads and railways—rests atop an unaltered natural world. Cronon’s argument relies on the idea that second nature served to interconnect cities and define the routes of commerce. These artificial corridors quickened the time it took to get from one place to another, creating an artificial form of human-based time. In Chicago’s meat-packing industry, dressed beef that was slaughtered in Chicago could be sold in New York City in under a weeks time for a large profit. Second nature served to create an international market of capital trade. Cronon then argues that the network of second nature “obscured the very connections it helped create” (257). The walls that separate the social classes need not be strictly physical. Physical space becomes abstract when locality no longer matters. Cronon argues that the annihilation of physical space favors those who can accomplish the task as well as take advantage of the situation: the people with the most capital. Cronon’s view of Chicago, instead of creating artificial walls between social classes, abolishes them, and in turn, further divides the rich from the
Cronon analyzes how the ecological and economical transformation of Chicago affects the landscape itself. Much of his work explores the centralization of power. The centralization of power results in the localization of capital. The resulting social hierarchy that forms bases itself in the corporate world rather than in an intrinsic belief or land scarcity, a noticeable difference from the likes of Palladio or Blackmar. The prominent force of the hierarchy comes from the corporate world creating “a kind of ‘second nature,’ designed by people and improved toward human ends” (Cronon 56). Second nature—mostly roads and railways—rests atop an unaltered natural world. Cronon’s argument relies on the idea that second nature served to interconnect cities and define the routes of commerce. These artificial corridors quickened the time it took to get from one place to another, creating an artificial form of human-based time. In Chicago’s meat-packing industry, dressed beef that was slaughtered in Chicago could be sold in New York City in under a weeks time for a large profit. Second nature served to create an international market of capital trade. Cronon then argues that the network of second nature “obscured the very connections it helped create” (257). The walls that separate the social classes need not be strictly physical. Physical space becomes abstract when locality no longer matters. Cronon argues that the annihilation of physical space favors those who can accomplish the task as well as take advantage of the situation: the people with the most capital. Cronon’s view of Chicago, instead of creating artificial walls between social classes, abolishes them, and in turn, further divides the rich from the