What do you think?
Rate this book
Discovering the Vernacular Landscape
A pioneer in landscape studies takes us on a tour of landscapes past and present to show how our surroundings reflect our culture.
“No one who cares deeply about landscape issues can overlook the scores of brilliant insights and challenges to the mind, eye and conscience contained in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape . It is a book to be deeply cherished and to be read and pondered many times.”―Wilbur Zelinsky, Landscape
“While it is fashionable to speak of man as alienated from his environment, Mr. Jackson shows us all the ties that bind us to it, consciously or unconsciously. He teaches us to speak intelligently―rather than polemically or wistfully―of the sense of place.”―Anatole Broyard, New York Times
“This book is a vital and seminal text: do beg, borrow or buy it.”―Robert Holden, Landscape Design (London)
“Incisive and overpoweringly influential. It will probably tell you something about how you live that you’ve never thought about.”―Thomas Hine, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“No one can come close to Jackson in his unique combination of historical scholarship and field experience, in his deep knowledge of European high culture as well as of American trailer parks, in his archivist’s nose for the unusual fact and his philosopher’s mind for the trenchant, surprising question.”―Yi-Fu Tuan
“No one who cares deeply about landscape issues can overlook the scores of brilliant insights and challenges to the mind, eye and conscience contained in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape . It is a book to be deeply cherished and to be read and pondered many times.”―Wilbur Zelinsky, Landscape
“While it is fashionable to speak of man as alienated from his environment, Mr. Jackson shows us all the ties that bind us to it, consciously or unconsciously. He teaches us to speak intelligently―rather than polemically or wistfully―of the sense of place.”―Anatole Broyard, New York Times
“This book is a vital and seminal text: do beg, borrow or buy it.”―Robert Holden, Landscape Design (London)
“Incisive and overpoweringly influential. It will probably tell you something about how you live that you’ve never thought about.”―Thomas Hine, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“No one can come close to Jackson in his unique combination of historical scholarship and field experience, in his deep knowledge of European high culture as well as of American trailer parks, in his archivist’s nose for the unusual fact and his philosopher’s mind for the trenchant, surprising question.”―Yi-Fu Tuan
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
5 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
J.B. Jackson
14 books19 followersJohn Brinckerhoff "Brinck" Jackson, J. B. Jackson, (September 25, 1909, Dinard, France - August 28, 1996, La Cienega, NM) was a writer, publisher, instructor, and sketch artist in landscape design. Herbert Muschamp, New York Times architecture critic, stated that J. B. Jackson was “America’s greatest living writer on the forces that have shaped the land this nation occupies.” He was influential in broadening the perspective on the “vernacular” landscape.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 21, 2020
Thought-provoking book about the vernacular nature of landscape. Although much has been written about vernacular architecture, few has been written about vernacular landscapes. The book is composed of separate lectures, yet there are some overlapping topics. The lectures have a manifest-theoretical character.
March 3, 2013
This collection of lectures dealing with landscapes provides scattershot insight into J.B. Jackson’s thinking on the concept of landscapes as well as his approach to analysis and understanding. Whether he is dealing with the horizontal landscapes seemingly preferred by modern Americans or Puritan perspectives on scenery in the Northeast, Jackson focuses on the potentialities of the landscape and the possibilities for future development.
If there’s any overarching theory of landscape in this book, it’s the difference between political and inhabited landscapes. He outlines distinctions between ‘political landscapes’—those explicitly created and organized by larger powers—and inhabited landscapes, or those that are preexisting and somehow generative of their populations (42). The inhabited landscape is less impacted by forces outside of a community or small-scale organization and shaped by the daily interaction with the surrounding environment. He uses the words ‘natural world’ in this context, but given the issues with natural/cultural dichotomies I’m loathe to reproduce that here.
In all of his descriptions and musings, Jackson seems to be balancing on the cusp of continuity and change. He is interested in the history of landscapes, the conditions that led to a particular manifestation, but is also invested in judging a landscape beautiful “when it has been or can be the scene of a significant experience in self-awareness and eventual self-knowledge” (64). For him, landscapes seem to have libratory potential, at least when related to the individual.
If there’s any overarching theory of landscape in this book, it’s the difference between political and inhabited landscapes. He outlines distinctions between ‘political landscapes’—those explicitly created and organized by larger powers—and inhabited landscapes, or those that are preexisting and somehow generative of their populations (42). The inhabited landscape is less impacted by forces outside of a community or small-scale organization and shaped by the daily interaction with the surrounding environment. He uses the words ‘natural world’ in this context, but given the issues with natural/cultural dichotomies I’m loathe to reproduce that here.
In all of his descriptions and musings, Jackson seems to be balancing on the cusp of continuity and change. He is interested in the history of landscapes, the conditions that led to a particular manifestation, but is also invested in judging a landscape beautiful “when it has been or can be the scene of a significant experience in self-awareness and eventual self-knowledge” (64). For him, landscapes seem to have libratory potential, at least when related to the individual.
April 12, 2008
Ever think about why strip malls are important or how the house on wheels evolved? How about the modern hotrodder/traveler who experiences the american west at 60+ mph? Funny, ironic and perplexing. Awesome, but not for everyone.
May 6, 2012
No one wrote about America like J.B. Jackson. This book and two earlier volumes, Landscapes and The Necessity for Ruins, are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the way that Americans have chosen to inhabit this continent.
Read
January 17, 2008Recommended by Peter Monro of Portland Maine as one of the best books in landscape architecture in 1998. Thanks to the Landscape Information Hub UK. http://www.lih.gre.ac.uk/histhe/books...
January 25, 2009
Feels a little dated at this point, but some fascinating ideas- most interesting in terms of linking ancient and medieval architecture and landscape to modern and contemporary trends.
February 2, 2009
Can't we have a book on our "read" shelf and our "to read" shelf at the same time? I read this ages ago, forgot all about JB Jackson until recently and now I cannot wait to read him again!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews