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A genre-bending blend of naturalism, memoir, and social manifesto for rewilding the city, the self, and society.. A Natural History of Empty Lots is a genre-defying work of nature writing, literary nonfiction, and memoir that explores what happens when nature and the city intersect. To do this, we must challenge our assumptions of nature itself. During the real estate crash of the late 2000s, Christopher Brown purchased an empty lot in an industrial section of Austin, Texas. The property - a brownfield site bisected with an abandoned petroleum pipeline and littered with concrete debris and landfill trash - was an unlikely site for a home. Along with his son, Brown had explored similar empty lots around Austin, so-called "ruined" spaces once used for agriculture and industry awaiting their redevelopment as Austin became a 21st century boom town.