Landscape in America

The American landscape is astonishing in its diversity—from great global cities to sparsely inhabited plains, from rich wetlands to huge deserts, from mountain peaks to rolling fields of grain, from ancient pueblos to suburbia, from famous river valleys to old industrial heartlands, from backyards to city streets. Americans have lived intimately with these landscapes since before recorded history, and we continue today to think about, and sometimes even struggle over, what the land means, to whom it belongs, and whose hands will shape its appearance in the future.

In this collection of specially commissioned essays, nineteen of America's leading writers, artists, and scholars come together to ponder the question "What is landscape?" Recognizing that no one person or discipline can possibly provide the whole answer, George Thompson has chosen a range of viewpoints that, in his words, "attempts to make links between art and science, history and geography, photography and literature, a land ethic and environmental design, management, and planning."

Landscape in America is the first book to explore the idea of landscape and place in such a broad-ranging way. Designed for the uncommon "common reader," it offers a distinctively American perspective on what landscape is, what it means, and what it represents that will be compelling to the widest possible audience.