Technologies of Landscape: From Reaping to Recycling

Paul Brassley, James Dickinson, Jacob Wamberg, Tadeusz Rachwal, Stuart Kidd, Christopher Bailey, Stephen Mosley, Barbara Allen, Mark Luccarelli, David E. Nye

ISBN 10: 1558492291 / ISBN 13: 9781558492295

Published by University of Massachusetts Press (edition First Edition), 2000

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 1558492291-7-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Technologies of Landscape: From Reaping to Recycling
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1558492291
• ISBN 13: 9781558492295
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

Technology and landscape have long been understood as inherently antagonistic concepts, reflective of the encroachments of civilization on the natural world. Yet as the essays in this volume make clear, the tension between culture and nature is more apparent than real. Even in preindustrial societies, where the dominant technologies are agricultural, it would be impossible to envision a landscape unshaped by human contact. Drawing on evidence from Europe and America, and from the Renaissance to the present day, the contributors to this volume reconceive of the relationship between technology and landscape as a product of cultural interactions. Rather than view landscape only statically as space, they also see it as a process embedded in narrative, or time. Whether one is concerned with the English countryside, the Nazi Autobahn, a naturalist's description of the New World, or chemical pollution in contemporary Louisiana, the question of who gives a place its meaning is just as important as who constructs the physical landscape. Is the Grand Canyon a profitless locality, a sublime wonder, or a potential mining site? Is the smoke of an industrial city construed as pollution or as a heartening sign of prosperity? Is the Appalachian Trail a means to revivify the rural economy or a way to escape into a rugged wilderness experience? These are some of the questions addressed in this interdisciplinary collection of original essays. In addition to David E. Nye, contributors are Paul Brassley, James Dickinson, Jacob Wamberg, Tadeusz Rachwel, Stuart Kidd, Christopher Bailey, Stephen Mosley, Barbara Allen, Mark Luccarelli, Thomas Zeller, Stephen Bending, Pia Maria Flodin, Peter Goin, and Elizabeth Raymond.

About the Author

David E. Nye is professor of American history and chair of the Center for American Studies at Odense University in Denmark. He is author of eight books, including American Technological Sublime and Electrifying America, which won the Dexter Prize and the Abel Woolman Award.