Understanding Ordinary Landscapes [Paperback]

Paul Groth (Editor), Todd W. Bressi (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300072031 | ISBN-13: 978-0300072037 | Publication Date: November 13, 1997 | Edition: annotated edition

How does knowledge of everyday environments foster deeper understanding of both past and present cultural life? In this book authorities in social history, architectural history, American studies, cultural geography, and landscape architecture explore aspects of the emergent field of cultural landscape studies, demonstrating the value of investigating the many meanings of ordinary settings. While traditional studies in this field have been of rural life, most of the authors in this collection take on urban subjects, and with them the challenging issues of power, class, race, ethnicity, subculture, and cultural opposition. There is a chapter by J.B. Jackson, the field's foremost proponent and exemplar, on the nature of the vernacular house and the garage. Some of the other contributors include James Borchert on the social stratification of Cleveland suburbs; Rina Swentzell on a comparison of native and federal environments on the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico; Reuben Rainey on the Gettysburg battlefield; Dolores Hayden on the potentials of ethnic landscape documentation; and Denis Cosgrove on spectacle and society. Still other authors Wilbur Zelinsky, Richard Walker, Dell Upton, David Lowenthal, Jay Appleton, and Robert Riley-explore the problems and potentials of vision and space as sources of social interpretation. The book also includes a historical review of recent trends in the field of landscape studies and an annotated bibliography.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; annotated edition edition (November 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300072031
• ISBN-13: 978-0300072037
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must For Anyone Interested In The Landscape!, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding Ordinary Landscapes (Paperback)

This small book, with a simple title, Understanding Ordinary Landscapes, is a huge resource in the area of cultural landscape, and our connections through culture to nature. The initial attraction was the fun and entertaining sound of the title- understanding ordinary landscapes. Something for recreational travel reading? It was not to be. Months later I have yet to reconcile more than a few of the classical issues, dilemmas, enigmas, and debates in this seemingly simple subject area of our relationship to the world we live in.

Understanding Ordinary Landscapes is a collection of contemporary cultural landscape essays and is a theoretical basis for comprehending the mysteries of perception of the landscape, the environment, and furthering the culture versus nature discourse. It brings critical analysis, and an annotated bibliography to the relatively new area of landscape architectural theory. A must for professionals and anyone interested in the landscape.

Copyright 1998 Robert Hotten