Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime [Hardcover]

Kenneth I. Helphand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2006

Why is it that in the midst of a war, one can still find gardens? In the most brutal environments, both stateside and on the battlefield, they continue to flourish. Wartime gardens are dramatic examples of what Kenneth I. Helphand calls “defiant gardens” — gardens created in extreme social, political, economic, or cultural conditions. Illustrated with archival photos, this remarkable book examines gardens of war in the 20th century, including gardens built behind the trenches in World War I, in the Warsaw and other ghettos during World War II, and in Japanese-American internment camps, as well as gardens created by soldiers at their bases and encampments during wars in the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, and Korea. Proving that gardens are far more than peaceful respites from the outside world, Defiant Gardens is a thought-provoking analysis of why people create natural spaces.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gardens that ignored the rules of nature and gardeners who challenged the laws of man are vitally united in Helphand's seminal and revelatory study of life during some of the most lethal conflicts of the twentieth century. From the torturous 475-mile trench line that formed the western front in World War I to the alien landscapes of the Japanese American internment camps in the U.S. during World War II, the sites of unfathomable human brutality also gave rise to acts of uplifting horticultural resistance. Whether they were subsistence vegetable beds improbably tilled beneath barbed wire fences in Nazi-created ghettos or symbolic topiaries artistically carved from brittle desert sagebrush, each audacious example bears solemn testimony to the assertive efforts of determined soldiers, POWs, Holocaust victims, and others to vanquish war's horrors through the spiritually ennobling act of gardening. Helphand's extensively researched history of gardens in wartime illuminates the grotesque juxtaposition of willful devastation and the astonishing tenacity required to create life in the face of death.

Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"An incredible and deply moving history of the ways in which soldiers and civilians, often in the most grievous and immiserated circumstances, have created little pockets of horticultural hope throughout the twentieth century... The photographs alone are extraordinary, but the chronicles of imaginative resistance are almost beyond belief. (New Statesman) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Trinity University Press; 1st edition (March 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595340211
• ISBN-13: 978-1595340214
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,069,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, May 12, 2007

By 

Coffee Creek Mother - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime (Hardcover)

A review in the WSJ, caught my eye and I ordered this book. I sent "Defiant Gardens" directly to our daughter, who is currently in prison. Spoke with her today - this book is an inspiration. Women, other inmates, are lined up to read it after she's shared passages out loud with them...

She loved Nelson Mandela's words, "To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a small taste of freedom."

Or from the quote about ghettos and camps,"These defiant gardens were an attempt to create a kind of peace in the midst of madness and order in the prevailing chaos."

Kenneth Helphand has hit the mark with his insight. We are donating Defiant Gardens to the prison library so his words can be enjoyed by those who might appreciate it the most.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dig In And Read, January 4, 2007

By 

Patsy (Cape Girardeau, MO, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime (Hardcover)

Gardeners, Veterans, psychologists, sociologists, folks who have lived through an encampment or been a prisoner can appreciate this book. Keep a hankie close by. You will be a better person for having read this book. It repeatedly illustrated resilience in people of all ages and races. People like plants, want to live. Even if it is a daily struggle to survive, it is worth it to have another day. Read this book. You will be grateful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving tale that history buff and gardening enthusiast alike will enjoy, January 13, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime (Paperback)

Death and misery all around, but there are things to remind us that there is always hope. "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime" are stories of people, who in spite of their terrible surroundings, build gardens in places where one would least expect. With stories telling of Jewish couples building gardens in the ghettos of Germany, French soldiers sowing gardens outside the trenches, and even modern American soldiers offering Baghdad plant life, "Defiant Gardens" is a moving tale that history buff and gardening enthusiast alike will enjoy.