Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape [Hardcover]

F. H. A. Aalen (Editor), Kevin Whelan (Editor), Matthew Stout (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 1997

Lush and green, the beauty of Ireland's landscape is legendary. "The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape" has harnessed the expertise of dozens of specialists to produce an exciting and pioneering study which aims to increase understanding and appreciation for the landscape as an important element of Irish national heritage, and to provide a much needed basis for an understanding of landscape conservation and planning.

Essentially cartographic in approach, the Atlas is supplemented by diagrams, photographs, paintings, and explanatory text. Regional case studies, covering the whole of Ireland from north to south, are included, along with historical background. The impact of human civilization upon Ireland's geography and environment is well documented, and the contributors to the Atlas deal with contemporary changes in the landscape resulting from developments in Irish agriculture, forestry, bog exploitation, tourism, housing, urban expansion, and other forces.

"The Atlas of the Rural Irish Landscape" is a book which aims to educate and inform the general reader and student about the relationship between human activity and the landscape. It is a richly illustrated, beautifully written, and immensely authoritative work that will be the guide to Ireland's geography for many years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Chosen as one of the Times Literary Supplement's (1997) International Books of the Year 'Lavish in form and erudite in content. There are sections on bogs and demesnes, fields and villages, mining and the destruction of antiquities. The Irish landscape, now in places under grave ecological threat, has always been a visual palimpsest of the country's turbulent history, a text to be deciphered as much as to be savoured. This beautifully illustrated essay interweaves geology, archaeology, demography, social history and a host of other disciplines, moving from tourism to the rural poor, peat to parks, vernacular rural architecture to landscape management. It demonstrates the point that, rather like literary studies, there is almost nothing that geography isn't about; but after productions as ambitious as this, literary studies had better look to its laurels.'

(Terry Eagleton Times Literary Supplement )

'Anyone interested in Ireland, especially the Irish countryside, will find this attractive volume anything from engaging to indispensable. A main purpose of the book -undertaken by two professors at Trinity College, Dublin and Whelan, Ireland's foremost historical geographer - is to be a warning about the degradation of Ireland's rural heritage. But the book, using up-to-the-minute computer cartography and drawing on a variety of disciplines, is also a vivid, colourful evocation and analysis of the physical and human features of a superb landscape.'

(The Globe and Mail )

Chosen as a Lingua Franca Breakthrough Book as one of the most illuminating recent books on Ireland 'A remarkable multidisciplinary survey of the landscape that shaped Irish folklore, literature, and visual art - focusing on the seven centuries of colonial rule. This intelligently illustrated atlas provides a social, archaeological, and geological history of the land and a polemic against Ireland's failure to protect its rural region.'

(Vera Kreilkamp Lingua Franca )

About the Author

F.H.A. Aalen is professor of Geography at Trinity College, Dublin, and has served with various government bodies in Ireland regarding environmental issues, landscape preservation, and regional development.

Matthew Stout, the cartographic editor, is a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin.

Kevin Whelan, widely regarded as Ireland's most important historical geographer, teaches at Boston College, Massachussets.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 353 pages
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 1 edition (July 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802042945
• ISBN-13: 978-0802042941
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,978,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars accessible and non-trite treatment of the irish landscape, November 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (Hardcover)

This book explains the Ireland that you are likely to see when you go there. It is a welcome change from the countless "magical/tragical/literary ireland", photography books that are full of pseudo poetic descriptions, photos of freckle faced redhead kids and nuns on bicycles. It demonstrates much of the development of the towns, villages and even the houses in an intelligent and clear manner that explained much even to me, and I lived there for nearly thirty years. It is beautifully illustrated in both maps and photos. If you want a book that is truly informative about the geography and history of the landscape that is also a beautiful to look at you should get this book.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Announcement of prize awarded to Atlas..., May 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape (Hardcover)

Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape has been chosen by the American Conference for Irish Studies as the best book in History/Social Sciences for 1998. Lucy McDiarmid, President, American Conference for Irish Studies