Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on ordinary people— rather than on famous decision makers and politicians—who shaped the changing geography of Wisconsin and whose experiences are linked with events in other parts of the United States. It explores a complex and dynamic geographical reality filled with conflict: between Indians and white traders and settlers; between "old" and "new" immigrant groups; between lumberjacks and farmers and lumber barons, railroad builders, bankers, and politicians; between laborers and their industrial bosses; between rural and urban people. In studying places, such as Wisconsin, geographers use three different yet related approaches: regionalization, human-environmental interactions, and spatial analysis. Several general themes emerge from the study of the making of the Wisconsin landscape. The human geography of Wisconsin reflects the great transformations that occurred in the last 300 years.