Synopsis
In this natural history classic, the author takes the reader on field trips to landscapes across America, both domesticated and wild. She shows how to read the stories written in the land, interpreting the clues laid down by history, culture, and natural forces. A renowned teacher, writer and conservationist in her native Midwest, Watts studied with Henry Cowles, the pioneering American ecologist. She was the first to explain his theories of plant succesion to the general public. Her graceful, witty essays, with charming illustrations by the author, are still relevant and engaging today, as she invites us to see the world around us with fresh eyes.
Review
A classic in landscape interpretation, remarkably timely. Unexcelled in the blending of landscape ecology and lived experience on landscapes. -- Int'l Society for Environmental Ethics Newsletter, Summer 1999
A fantastic book. Great for understanding the Indiana Dunes and the north woods of Wisconsin, for example. -- Weedpatch Gazette, Spring 1999
May Theilgaard Watts' classic, work, Reading the Landscape of America, is an excellent landscape guidebook with a near perfect blend of natural and cultural history. -- Arnold Berleant, A. Carlson, The Aesthetics of Human Environments, May 2007
No single essay I have read so well lays out our landscaping follies [as the last chapter of Watts' book]. -- Wild Ones Natural Landscapers Journal, October 2001
Stargazer, artist, poet and naturalist, Watts' interests were many. It shows in Reading the Landscape, a beautifully written book used for decades by educators. -- Chicago Wilderness Magazine, Winter 1999
The interpretive prototype of all landscape-level natural histories. It opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing. -- Tom Wessels, ecologist, in Stonecrop, Winter 1997
Watts' chapter on the Prairie Plowing Match is a classic work of landscape study. -- Sonia Simone, Whole Earth Review
Watts' essays constitute the near perfect guidebook for the appreciation of the rural landscape. -- Allen Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment, 2000
This is a classic of the quality and genre to rank with Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac. . . Watts brings to the task (of ecology) an artist's eye and a story teller's way with words, to help the non-biologist better understand the world about him. --Philip B. Whitford, Ecology, Autumn 1976
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