In this celebrated work, Alexander Wilson examines environments built over the past fifty years, as humans have continued to discover, exploit, protect, restore, and sometimes re-enchant a natural world in convulsion. Extensively illustrated.
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Alexander Wilson's remarkable The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez , is from Between the Lines, which has, on a shoestring budget, brought us more intelligent theoretical texts on the state of our cultural environment over the last five years than all of Canada's mainstream presses put together.
Wilson's book is a perfect example of what the press excels at. It is the first study ever done on the effect that the Disney-led "Let's-have-fun-and-not-think-about-who-gets-the-profits" approach to architecture, land use, and civic culture has had on our urban and natural environments. Although occasionally made opaque by its complexity, Wilson's analysis of the environments we have constructed around us (and the natural systems we have damaged or destroyed) is refreshingly neutral. He is neither a wildflower-brandishing Birkenstock environmentalist nor a bug-eyed techno-fun fascist. He argues that if sustainable development is ever to be more than a public relations term, technology, human culture, and nature are going to have to be integrated in ways that previous eras have been incapable of imagining. According to Wilson, the most dangerous problem we face is a conceptual deficit, not a technological one. This is an indispensable book, and one that readers will find themselves going back to again and again as the effects of the single-minded and single-purpose messing around of the last 50 years become more unavoidable.
Brian Fawcett (Books in Canada) -- Books in Canada
Wilson's book is a perfect example of what the press excels at. It is the first study ever done on the effect that the Disney-led "Let's-have-fun-and-not-think-about-who-gets-the-profits" approach to architecture, land use, and civic culture has had on our urban and natural environments. Although occasionally made opaque by its complexity, Wilson's analysis of the environments we have constructed around us (and the natural systems we have damaged or destroyed) is refreshingly neutral. He is neither a wildflower-brandishing Birkenstock environmentalist nor a bug-eyed techno-fun fascist. He argues that if sustainable development is ever to be more than a public relations term, technology, human culture, and nature are going to have to be integrated in ways that previous eras have been incapable of imagining. According to Wilson, the most dangerous problem we face is a conceptual deficit, not a technological one. This is an indispensable book, and one that readers will find themselves going back to again and again as the effects of the single-minded and single-purpose messing around of the last 50 years become more unavoidable.
Brian Fawcett (Books in Canada) -- Books in Canada
About the Author
The late Alexander Wilson was a horticulturalist, journalist, and partner in a landscape design firm. He taught and wrote widely on popular culture, media, and the environment.
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Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In "The Culture of Nature," Alexander Wilson argues that our sense of what counts as nature or as natural is by no means a "natural" or spontaneous perception of a preexistant and untouchable Nature. Instead, he demonstrates that how we experience and think of nature are largely shaped by the cultural, social, political, and economic forces that surround us and pervade our experience even when we think we have escaped them by leaving the city and venturing into the great outdoors. To support his argument, Wilson offers compelling anaylses of theme parks, forest preserves, wildlife conservation programs, scenic roadways, car, truck, train and air travel, and more. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the city versus the wildnerness experience, in how cultural forces affect our sense of what is natural, and in the role that government and financial forces have on our experience of our surroundings--especially of our "natural" surroundings.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Book that Questions the "Naturalness" of Nature
Jan 4 2004
By Kirsten Jacobson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
In "The Culture of Nature," Alexander Wilson argues that our sense of what counts as nature or as natural is by no means a "natural" or spontaneous perception of a preexistant and untouchable Nature. Instead, he demonstrates that how we experience and think of nature are largely shaped by the cultural, social, political, and economic forces that surround us and pervade our experience even when we think we have escaped them by leaving the city and venturing into the great outdoors. To support his argument, Wilson offers compelling anaylses of theme parks, forest preserves, wildlife conservation programs, scenic roadways, car, truck, train and air travel, and more. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the city versus the wildnerness experience, in how cultural forces affect our sense of what is natural, and in the role that government and financial forces have on our experience of our surroundings--especially of our "natural" surroundings.
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