Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime

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.

Kenneth Helphand is a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon, where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory, and design since 1974. His other books include Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape, Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel, and Yard Street Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space, coauthored with Cynthia Girling. Helphand served as editor of Landscape Journal from 1994 to 2002. He is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and an honorary member of the Israel Association of Landscape Architects. He has received the Bradford Williams Medal and a Graham Foundation grant, as well as distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.