Seeing Trees: A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin

by Sonja Dümpelmann

A fascinating and beautifully illustrated volume that explains what street trees tell us about humanity’s changing relationship with nature and the city

Today, cities around the globe are planting street trees to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, as landscape historian Sonja Dümpelmann explains, this is not a new phenomenon. In her eye-opening work, Dümpelmann shows how New York City and Berlin began systematically planting trees to improve the urban climate during the nineteenth century, presenting the history of the practice within its larger social, cultural, and political contexts.

A unique integration of empirical research and theory, Dümpelmann’s richly illustrated work uncovers this important untold story. Street trees—variously regarded as sanitizers, nuisances, upholders of virtue, economic engines, and more—reflect the changing relationship between humans and nonhuman nature in urban environments. Offering valuable insights and frameworks, this authoritative volume will be an important resource for years to come.

Genres: Historical, History

634 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I read the wrong "Seeing Trees" book. This one is historic, academic, and mildly interesting even if you're a tree nerd. The first half is a history of NYC trees and is full of names of people. The chapter about grass roots tree activism is interesting and the chapter about women a few bits that are interesting, but mostly it's a lot of names. The second half of the book is about Berlin, and that was much more interesting. The parts about how trees were re-introduced in a rubble-filled, post-war city are fascinating. Overall, the book felt disjointed, like a series of articles strung together without a clear narrative or thesis. The illustrations are find, but in many the type is almost too small to read. I'm going to order that other "Seeing Trees."

[Anda Boluza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book on the history of trees in the city. The book examines trees in the context of urban developments, civil rights and gender roles and is written in an interesting and charming manner. The author's voice is human and empathic, yet it operates with precise historic facts and documents, thus the book is objective and at the same time it feels personal. For example, the fascinatong story of how the Matthews family saved their beloved tree by gathering around the big shade tree and declaring that they would "never see the tree go down" but "die fighting in the shade of its branches first". The tree "was threatened with the axe to make way for telephone wires".