In Common Fields, environmental historian Andrew Hurley has gathered thirteen original essays to tell a compelling story of one city's history. It is a story built on the never-ending tension between urban growth and environmental sustainability - a tension that defines the fate not just of St. Louis, but of cities around the world. In these pages, geographers, archaeologists, and historians come together to consider the enduring ties between a city's diverse residents and the physical environment on which their well-being depends.