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Understanding Ordinary Landscapes
How does knowledge of everyday environments foster deeper understanding of both past and present cultural life? In this compelling book, authorities in social history, architectural history, American studies, cultural geography, and landscape architecture explore aspects of the emergent field of cultural landscape studies, demonstrating the value of investigating the many meanings of ordinary settings.
Whereas traditional studies in this field have been of rural life, most of the authors in this collection take on urban subjects, and with them the challenging issues of power, class, race, ethnicity, subculture, and cultural opposition. J. B. Jackson, the field’s foremost proponent and practitioner, writes on the nature of the vernacular house and the garage. Other contributors include James Borchert on the social stratification of Cleveland suburbs, Rina Swentzell on Native American and U.S. government environments among the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico, Reuben Rainey on the Gettysburg battlefield, Dolores Hayden on the potentials of urban landscape documentation, and Denis Cosgrove on spectacle and society. Still other authors― Wilbur Zelinsky, Richard Walker, Dell Upton, David Lowenthal, Jay Appleton, and Robert Riley―explore vision and space as sources of social interpretation. The book also includes a historical review of recent trends in the field of landscape studies and an annotated bibliography.
Whereas traditional studies in this field have been of rural life, most of the authors in this collection take on urban subjects, and with them the challenging issues of power, class, race, ethnicity, subculture, and cultural opposition. J. B. Jackson, the field’s foremost proponent and practitioner, writes on the nature of the vernacular house and the garage. Other contributors include James Borchert on the social stratification of Cleveland suburbs, Rina Swentzell on Native American and U.S. government environments among the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico, Reuben Rainey on the Gettysburg battlefield, Dolores Hayden on the potentials of urban landscape documentation, and Denis Cosgrove on spectacle and society. Still other authors― Wilbur Zelinsky, Richard Walker, Dell Upton, David Lowenthal, Jay Appleton, and Robert Riley―explore vision and space as sources of social interpretation. The book also includes a historical review of recent trends in the field of landscape studies and an annotated bibliography.
- GenresAcademic
284 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 16, 2025
For a wide-ranging book of essays, I found this pretty interesting. Ever since the beginning of the semester it's been my loyal companion from those 70 degree days leaning against trees or now bundled up in 3 layers while the snow blows around outside. Although it's taken me a long time to get through, I've found I haven't really minded the slowness.
I've always been someone who thinks a little too deeply about place, and I'm really glad others have seemed to share my sentiment, in this academic sort of context. More than anything, I think this book has the (equally self-effacing and desperate) thesis that cultural landscape studies should be an academic field in itself, its practitioners being worthy of being seen alongside sociologists, architectural critics, and art historians yet somewhere in between at the same time. Overall, I feel like the process of reading this has given me a lot to chew on and a lot to reference in casual conversation so I seem very learned and intelligent. The Romantic specter of John Ruskin haunts this entire book, and it seems like the late twentieth century was essentially waiting for some messianic polymath thinker like that to redefine the field again but who can say...
More recently, I've come accross this Instagram account @fastfoodlegendofficial, a side project of US artist Sam Pocker. The account is presented by a talking burger with googly eyes, providing commentary of the artistic merits of fast food chains' branding decisions in a measured, even tone. It's essentially a combination of poststructuralist theory, architectural criticism, and composition analysis. It's entirely earnest, though, which is the best part. In this age of AI slop and other shit, perhaps cultural landscape studies can come back through mouthpieces shaped like burgers.
Highlights:
"Visual Landscapes of a Streetcar Suburb" James Borchert
I have a deep love for Cleveland and its idiosyncrasies, and this essay made me want to mourn all the beautiful early twentieth century residential development we could have had in our country. Verdict is that localism is always cool.
"Conflicting Values: The Santa Clara Pueblo and Day School" Rina Swentzell
This reminds me of the work of cultural geographer Doreen Massey in "City Worlds," talking about the traces of Indigenous history in present-day Mexico city, architecturally, historically, socially, etc. This is an insightful essay on perception, and is a stark reminder that "American" is not the best (or only) perspective.
"Where the One-Eyed Man is King: The Tyrrany of Visual and Formalist Values in Evaluating Landscapes" Catherine M. Howett
Very philosophical and intellectual. Made me see the world different for a bit.
"Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space" Dolores Hayden
This was just entirely up my alley. Nodded the whole way through, annotated it to hell and back... I love when we talk about Los Angeles because there's nothing to lose.
I've always been someone who thinks a little too deeply about place, and I'm really glad others have seemed to share my sentiment, in this academic sort of context. More than anything, I think this book has the (equally self-effacing and desperate) thesis that cultural landscape studies should be an academic field in itself, its practitioners being worthy of being seen alongside sociologists, architectural critics, and art historians yet somewhere in between at the same time. Overall, I feel like the process of reading this has given me a lot to chew on and a lot to reference in casual conversation so I seem very learned and intelligent. The Romantic specter of John Ruskin haunts this entire book, and it seems like the late twentieth century was essentially waiting for some messianic polymath thinker like that to redefine the field again but who can say...
More recently, I've come accross this Instagram account @fastfoodlegendofficial, a side project of US artist Sam Pocker. The account is presented by a talking burger with googly eyes, providing commentary of the artistic merits of fast food chains' branding decisions in a measured, even tone. It's essentially a combination of poststructuralist theory, architectural criticism, and composition analysis. It's entirely earnest, though, which is the best part. In this age of AI slop and other shit, perhaps cultural landscape studies can come back through mouthpieces shaped like burgers.
Highlights:
"Visual Landscapes of a Streetcar Suburb" James Borchert
I have a deep love for Cleveland and its idiosyncrasies, and this essay made me want to mourn all the beautiful early twentieth century residential development we could have had in our country. Verdict is that localism is always cool.
"Conflicting Values: The Santa Clara Pueblo and Day School" Rina Swentzell
This reminds me of the work of cultural geographer Doreen Massey in "City Worlds," talking about the traces of Indigenous history in present-day Mexico city, architecturally, historically, socially, etc. This is an insightful essay on perception, and is a stark reminder that "American" is not the best (or only) perspective.
"Where the One-Eyed Man is King: The Tyrrany of Visual and Formalist Values in Evaluating Landscapes" Catherine M. Howett
Very philosophical and intellectual. Made me see the world different for a bit.
"Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space" Dolores Hayden
This was just entirely up my alley. Nodded the whole way through, annotated it to hell and back... I love when we talk about Los Angeles because there's nothing to lose.
March 28, 2013
Cultural Landscape Studies is awesome because its not its own field. Groth brings together scholars from many (often divergent) fields in order to draw out contemporary themes and issues in the study of landscapes. Some of the dopest ish dealt with discussions on the hegemony of the visual in the history of western aesthetic tradition.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews