Man in the Landscape

by Shepard, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780820324401
• ISBN10: 082032440X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

A pioneering exploration of the roots of our attitudes toward nature, Paul Shepard's most seminal work is as challenging and provocative today as when it first appeared in 1967.Man in the Landscapewas among the first books of a new genre that has elucidated the ideas, beliefs, and images that lie behind our modern destruction and conservation of the natural world.Departing from the traditional study of land use as a history of technology, this book explores the emergence of modern attitudes in literature, art, and architecture--their evolutionary past and their taproot in European and Mediterranean cultures. With humor and wit, Shepard considers the influence of Christianity on ideas of nature, the absence of an ethic of nature in modern philosophy, and the obsessive themes of dominance and control as elements of the modern mind. In his discussions of the exploration of the American West, the establishment of the first national parks, and the reactions of pioneers to their totally new habitat, he identifies the transport of traditional imagery into new places as a sort of cultural baggage.

Author Biography

Paul Shepard (1925-1996) was Avery Professor of Natural Philosophy and Human Ecology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of twelve books, a number of which are available from the University of Georgia Press.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Preface to First Edition
Introduction
The Eye	p. 3
A Sense of Place	p. 28
The Image of the Garden	p. 65
The Itinerant Eye	p. 119
The Virgin Dream	p. 157
Fellow Creatures	p. 190
Varieties of Nature Hating	p. 214
The American West	p. 238
Sources and References	p. 275
Index
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.