Arcadian America : the death and life of an environmental tradition / Aaron Sachs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sachs, Aaron (Aaron Jacob), author.

Contributor:

Yale University Press, publisher.

Series:

New directions in narrative history.

New directions in narrative history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Arcadia in art.

Arcadia in literature.

Cemeteries--Environmental aspects--United States.

Cemeteries.

Cemeteries--Social aspects--United States.

Cemeteries--United States--History--19th century.

Environmental responsibility--United States.

Environmental responsibility.

Environmentalism--Social aspects--United States.

Environmentalism.

Human ecology--United States--History--19th century.

Human ecology.

Environmentalism--Social aspects.

United States.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (497 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2013]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Perhaps America's best environmental idea was not the national park but the garden cemetery, a use of space that quickly gained popularity in the mid-nineteenth century. Such spaces of repose brought key elements of the countryside into rapidly expanding cities, making nature accessible to all and serving to remind visitors of the natural cycles of life. In this unique interdisciplinary blend of historical narrative, cultural criticism, and poignant memoir, Aaron Sachs argues that American cemeteries embody a forgotten landscape tradition that has much to teach us in our current moment of environmental crisis. Until the trauma of the Civil War, many Americans sought to shape society into what they thought of as an Arcadia--not an Eden where fruit simply fell off the tree, but a public garden that depended on an ethic of communal care, and whose sense of beauty and repose related directly to an acknowledgment of mortality and limitation. Sachs explores the notion of Arcadia in the works of nineteenth-century nature writers, novelists, painters, horticulturists, landscape architects, and city planners, and holds up for comparison the twenty-first century's--and his own--tendency toward denial of both death and environmental limits. His far-reaching insights suggest new possibilities for the environmental movement today and new ways of understanding American history."--Jacket.

Contents:

Prologue : waterfalls and cemeteries

Common shade : cultivating a place for death

The middle landscapes of New England culture

Sleepy Hollow : a young nation in repose

Stumps

Three men of the middle border (part one) : twilight

Three men of the middle border (part two) : American homelessness

Atlantis : Arcadia and Armageddon

Epilogue : American Gothic; or death by landscape.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and online resource (A&AePortal, viewed on September 14, 2023).

ISBN:

9780300276640

0300276648

9780300189056

0300189052

9781283915311

1283915316

OCLC:

823040831