Save Our Land; Save Our Towns (Pa's Cultural & Natural Heritage Series) [Paperback]

Thomas Hylton (Author), Blair Seitz (Photographer), Mary Warner Denadai (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | Series: Pa's Cultural & Natural Heritage Series

150 photos 8 x 11 This extraordinary book gives a strategic plan for Pennsylvania to preserve farmland and forests, and revive our cities and neighborhoods. Winner of National Trust for Historic Preservation award. Written by Pulitzer-prize winning writer Thomas Hylton. Over 150 photographs and illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Thoughtful and touching reflection on the spatial underpinnings of community that is at once both profoundly simnple and complex. It is a first-rate treatment of a significant subject. -- Philadelphia Inquirer, December 17, 1995

Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: RB Books; 1St Edition edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879441446
• ISBN-13: 978-1879441446
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,378,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book won a National Trust for Historic Preservation Award, January 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Save Our Land; Save Our Towns (Pa's Cultural & Natural Heritage Series) (Paperback)

This is the best book available on the problems of sprawl. Preservation Pa.(sponsor of the book) and Hylton recently received a National Trust for Historic Preservation Honor Award for the impact the book has had. The book can be read in 2 hours; the photography is stunning.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lets get to work!, July 5, 2005

By 

JK Witherington (SE PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Save Our Land; Save Our Towns (Pa's Cultural & Natural Heritage Series) (Paperback)

This book is a clear outline of how suburbia took over and imposed a lifestyle on us that I'll bet we didn't want. Do you live in a house that requires you to drive to get anythinq? Even a loaf of bread? The ideas are clear, simple and seem so obvious. An easy read about a very complex subject.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Hopeful Vision of How Life Can Truly Be, June 17, 2009

By 

Flynn Farralone (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Save Our Land; Save Our Towns (Pa's Cultural & Natural Heritage Series) (Paperback)

I saw the video version of this book on PBS recently and I was so impressed by Hylton's humble, hopeful, yet realistic and matter-of-fact message that I sought out the book. It's beautifully put together with lovely photos and excellent narrative. Hylton really expresses his viewpoint in a concise, easily readable, and compelling package. This book was essentially written by a Pennsylvanian, about Pennsylvania, and for Pennsylvania, but its wisdom can easily be extended to almost every community.

It's hard to argue with Hylton when he makes the repeated claim that communities changed drastically after WWII when idealistic planners and starry-eyed architects arrogantly decided that the hundreds/thousands of years of human living patterns no longer were worth considering and that a new post-modern utopia was the only way to go. So, 60 years on us lowly citizens are living with the results -- long commutes isolated in our cars, rotting inner cities, and a general lack of community. We spend thousands of dollars going on vacations to spend time in Europe and other places where traditional communities have survived, and we are refreshed by their charm and livability. These places seem like a dying breed, doomed to eventually be destroyed in the name of progress and convenience. Even here in the USA, we watch resigned as lovely farmland is paved over to make industrial parks and far-flung, sterile housing tracts, and at the same time we weep when beloved parts of town with all their charm and human scale fade away.

But Hylton rightly claims that this is not necessary, and lays down a very reasonable and logical path to restoring our land and towns. I understand and hope that this book has had an impact on planners and architects -- that people are not interested in this lifestyle anymore. I think the tide has slowly turned but it will take a long time to undo the damage that has been done and to convince people that we truly can live in walkable communities and not sacrifice our livelihoods.

However, Hylton's book is not without its flaws -- he acknowledges that much of our problems today stem from the explosion of automobile usage, but I feel he gets a little bit too idealistic in thinking that we can return to an age where everyone can walk to work or ride a train and just use our cars for other reasons. Sounds great, but what if I'm living in my lovely little town and I lose my job down the street and the only employment I can find is 25 miles away? Am I to turn down the job and stay where I am? Am I to sell my home and move to my new town -- where I could possibly lose my job at any time again? No, I think as long as we CAN drive, we WILL. However, I think that telecommuting might help make his dream a reality in the future for many.

My other objection comes in Hylton's sample plan for governments to turn things around. It's a good plan and I'm glad he gave it so that policymakers can have an idea of what to do. But some of his suggestions come across as quite draconian. Maybe that's necessary -- maybe we have to have some tough love to get things going the right way -- but some suggestions are just not realistic. For example, Hylton intelligently claims that all new government buildings should be located in towns or cities, but then says that all government employees must live in the towns or cities that they work for. Sounds wonderful -- I myself work for a lovely little town in Southern California and would love to live in the city I work for -- but houses are so expensive here, I could not afford it on my city paycheck! This is a relatively minor complaint about the book, but there are several such suggestions and they at best smack of a liberal dose of idealism on Hylton's part, and at worst they smack of Hylton being quite out-of-touch.

But beyond those petty complaints, this is an excellent book and Hylton is to be greatly praised for writing it so well and moreover, taking such a stand. Believe me, in a world full of self-serving modernist policymakers, he really put himself out on a limb. Happily though, it appears his efforts are starting to bear fruit and planning departments over the country are embracing the long-lost but common-sense ideas that he outlines once again. This book should be standard reading for every city planner and architect so that they are reminded of what people actually want their communities to be like.