Making of the American Landscape

Michael Conzen is Professor of Geography at the University of Chicago

• 1. Nature’s Bequest 2. Indian Settlement Landscapes 3. Hispanic Landscape Traditions 4. The French Imprint on North America 5. Americanizing English Landscape Habits 6. The Plantation Regime 7. Gridding a National Landscape 8. Clearing the Forests 9. Remaking the Prairies 10. Watering the Deserts 11. Designing American Utopias 12. Inscribing Ethnicity on the Land 13. Organizing Religious Landscapes 14. Mechanizing the American Earth 15. Building American Cityscapes 16. Asserting Central Authority 17. Creating Landscapes of Civil Society 18. Imposing Landscapes of Private Power and Wealth 19. Paving America for the Automobile 20. Developing Corporate Consumption Venues

"The skillfully interwoven essays in The Making of the American Landscape, Second Edition paint a broad but penetrating picture of the changing character of the continental United States as seen through the lens of landscape change. The volume is a testament to the importance of work in historical geography and a showcase for what it means to seek understanding of a place through the study of landscape."—Alexander Murphy, University of Oregon"This richly illustrated and engagingly written survey of American landscapes provides exactly the right education to begin to see and understand landscape in all its order and variety. The second edition adds some sparkling new chapters, updated information, and attractive photographic color to what is already the standard of excellence for American landscape studies."—John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles "Michael Conzen has re-assembled a superb line up of authors renowned for their capacity to see detail and interpret the big picture. Chapters have been updated, especially through an expanded array of historical and contemporary views of landscapes, and several new authors make this an even more compelling text. "—Deryck Holdsworth, Pennsylvania State University "Everyone who has ever paused to wonder about the many historical features that survive in this sprawling country will enjoy the expertise as well as the enthusiasm that these authors bring to their topic in this second edition. The American landscape gains a whole new dimension."—Ellen Eslinger, DePaul University "With this second edition of The Making of the American Landscape, earlier essays have been substantively revised and new ones added to present critical new perspectives on topics that extend from early American Indian to contemporary mass culture and the utopian dimensions of sustainability. This impressive, wide-ranging history will be a necessary resource. "—Gwendolyn Wright, Columbia University "Only a second edition of Michael P. Conzen’s The Making of the American Landscape could be better than the first. Full color maps and photographs along with new chapters on religion, civil society, consumer and utopian landscapes provide fresh insights into how historical forces have physically shaped places and imbued them with meaning."—Anne Knowles, Middlebury College