The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day

The seminal text on landscape architecture from prehistory until the present day, now in an updated edition and illustrated in full color.

Now available in a new, updated edition, The Landscape of Man is a formative study on the history of landscape architecture. From small gardens to megacities, humans have always molded their environment to express or symbolize ideas―­power, order, comfort, harmony, pleasure, and mystery, to name a few. In 1975, authors Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe linked these ideas together to demonstrate that they are manifestations of a single, innate process.

The authors examined human-created spaces from ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, the Muslim world, medieval Europe, India, China, Japan, pre-­ Columbian America, and the post-Renaissance West in all its phases, as well as planning and landscape architecture from the mid-­ to late twentieth century.

With a new introduction and final chapter by internationally respected landscape critic Tim Richardson, this edition explores modernism to postmodernism, post-­industrialism to large-scale urban planning in China and elsewhere, before ending with small-­scale healing and community gardens.

Redesigned throughout with a contemporary look and feel, and illustrated in full color, this valuable resource to landscape architecture is made available to a new generation of readers interested in uncovering the history of our built environments.

600+ illustrations

Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900–­1996) was an English architect, town planner, landscape architect, garden designer, landscape and garden historian, lecturer, and author of numerous books. He was elected as a Royal Academician and awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH), the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest award, as well as a British Prix de Rome for Architecture.

Susan Jellicoe (1907–­1986) was a landscape artist, photographer, and author. Among her many books, she cowrote three with her husband, Geoffrey Jellicoe, including The Landscape of Man.

Tim Richardson is an internationally respected landscape critic, former editor at Wallpaper*, gardens editor at Country Life, and founding editor of New Eden magazine. His previous books include Avant Gardeners and The Arcadian Friends.