City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America
Since the 1890s, there have been vacant-lot gardens, school gardens, Depression-era relief gardens, victory gardens, and community gardens--each representing a consistent impulse to return to gardening during times of social and economic change. In this critical history of community gardening in America, the most comprehensive review of the greening of urban communities to date, Laura J. Lawson documents the evolution of urban garden programs in the United States.
Close on the heels of The Big Book of Urban Legends comes a companion volume of comic-strip biographies of a motley assortment of 67 crackpots, visionaries, despots, prophets, performers, and others whose peculiarities supposedly elevate them above mere eccentricity into the realm of the truly bizarre. It is not as successful as its predecessor, in which the urban legends theme allowed the cartoonists to develop succinct little narratives. It's not as easy to encapsulate the life of, say, Ivan the Terrible, in 35 panels.
Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920For over a century, dark visions of moral collapse and social disintegration in American cities spurred an anxious middle class to search for ways to restore order. In this important book, Paul Boyer explores the links between the urban reforms of the Progressive era and the long efforts of prior generations to tame the cities.
There is enormous interest in urban design and the regeneration of our urban areas, but current thinking often concentrates on the built form, forgetting the important role that open spaces play. Urban Open Spaces brings together extensive research and practical experience to prove the opportunities and benefits of different types of open space to society and individuals. This is the first book to bring together a variety of evidence from different disciplines to outline the benefits and opportunities of urban open spaces in an accessible way.
Dynamic Landscape Design, Ecology and Management of Naturalistic Urban Planting
The last quarter of the twentieth-century witnessed a burgeoning of interest in ecological or naturally inspired use of vegetation in the designed landscape. More recently a strong aesthetic element has been added to what was formerly a movement aimed at creating nature-like landscapes. The book advances a fusion of scientific and ecological planting design philosophy that can address the need for more sustainable designed landscapes.
