To Dwell Is To Garden: A History Of Boston's Community Gardens [Hardcover]

Sam Bass Warner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the heart of a squalid city, community gardens are oases of productivity for the resident gardenersa source of satisfaction and pride for some of the city's least-powerful people. As Warner points out, community gardens have a long history, from the "allotment gardens" of England to the back-to-nature plots of the 1960s. Focusing on the Boston area, this study describes in the gardeners' own words and in photographs the importance of gardens to the neighborhood and the individual. The ethnic heritages of the gardeners are seen in the variety of crops grown; the book's final section considers the vegetables grown in the Anglo-Irish, the Afro-American, the Italian, the Chinese, and the Hispanic garden. Well-written and photographed, but of interest mainly to sociologists and students of the history of horticulture. Pamela R. Daubenspeck, Warren-Trumbull Cty. P.L., Warren, Ohio
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Northeastern; 1St Edition edition (March 20, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555530079
• ISBN-13: 978-1555530075
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,090,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sam Bass Warner, Jr. formerly of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a citizen scholar active in urban reform. In numerous books and articles about U.S. cities, suburbs, neighborhoods and metropolitan regions, he invites readers to address today's problems by summoning shared memories of our American urban experience. Showing how our social relationships, cultural values and economic choices have been expressed in actions ranging from land management and development to community gardens and government planning, Warner describes the process of city building and the social consequences it has produced. Here in "American Urban Form," Warner and his artist coauthor, Andrew Whittemore use an imagined city representing the past of major U.S. cities over 400 years, to reveal how cities have changed our landscapes, buildings, houses, the environment and the way we live.