Arcadian America : the death and life of an environmental tradition

Resource Information

The work Arcadian America : the death and life of an environmental tradition represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of San Diego Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Arcadian America : the death and life of an environmental tradition

Title remainder

the death and life of an environmental tradition

Statement of responsibility

Aaron Sachs

Creator

• Sachs, Aaron, (Aaron Jacob)

Author

• Sachs, Aaron, (Aaron Jacob)

Subject

• American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
• Arcadia in art
• Arcadia in art
• Arcadia in literature
• Arcadia in literature
• Cemeteries
• Cemeteries -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Electronic books
• Environmental responsibility
• Environmental responsibility -- United States
• Environmentalism -- Social aspects
• Environmentalism -- Social aspects -- United States
• HISTORY -- United States -- 19th Century
• History
• Human ecology
• Human ecology -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• United States
• 1800-1899
• American literature

Genre

• History
• Electronic books
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

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

Member of

• New directions in narrative history

Cataloging source

CDX

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography

Series statement

New directions in narrative history

Target audience

specialized