Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy

by John Warfield Simpson

Book Overview

The American Revolution gave birth not just to a new nation, but to a new landscape. America was paradise to its native inhabitants, while to the colonists, it was an unlimited land of opportunity, a moral and physical wilderness from which they could create paradise. Powerful people like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton struggled to shape it to their opposing visions. Over the ensuing two hundred years, many other visions shaped the American...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520213645
• ISBN13: 9780520213647
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

college reading

Visions of Paradise was required reading for one of my daughter's college classes. She felt it accomplished what the prof wanted the class to learn, but wasn't a book she would have chosen to read on her own. Part of her disappointment was finding out she wasn't taking a landscaping class - which seemed to be the case from the course description. I didn't read it myself, so I can't comment on my own feelings. I gave it 4 stars since it covered the necessary information, not 5 because apparently it's somewhat boring. I will comment further once I have time to look the book over at the end of the quarter.

A Revelation

I am not a 'landscaper' in the grand or even minimal sense (tending to let my own backyard become overgrown), but I do have a layman's interest in history. Perhaps for those reasons I found 'Visions of Paradise' to be an enthralling introduction to the history of our American landscape. Simpson was able to engage my interest quickly with his obvious feeling for and sensitivity to our culture's rather short-sighted treatment of the natural landscape. As a native midwesterner I was particularly interested in his regional references but really found the entire volume to be captivating. He truly helped me to understand the national landscape as 'ours' in a collective sense. For the first time I have an informed appreciation of our land and believe that I have a role, however small, in its future. I will never be able to take a trip by car or plane in the same way again - Simpson's book has helped me understand the importance of my examining the nuances of all parts of our landscape, and being able to take a stronger position regarding its appropriate uses (even my own yard, which I am now cultivating more carefuly).

Quick, but not a light read,....

..it's a great book. The personal anecdotes will speed you through a book more scholarly than it first appears. With the clean slate that North America presented the world upon it's discovery, it's amazing how well it's held up, considering all the different hands on the chalk!

Excellent landscape book

Every now and then a book comes along that evokes our experience of the landscape, books by authors such as William Least Heat-Moon, John Hanson Mitchell, Donald Meinig, John Stilgoe, or J. B. Jackson. With Visions of Paradise, John Warfield Simpson joins the group and goes beyond. He offers a wide ranging and readable description of the forces that shaped our landscape from conflicts in landscape values to public policy and law. Visions is a wonderful book filled with personal anecdotes that engage. Anyone interested in cities, suburbs and environmental stewardship hould have a copy of this handsome book

Wonderful look of USA's beginnings, transitions, and present

Mr. Simpson's book is an unparalleled look at this nation's beginnings, transitions, growing pains, and its current situation. To understand today's problems and land-use ethics, one must read this book. Through elbow grease, endless research and a fascination with the land, Mr. Simpson has created a classic that anyone involved with the land must read. On a personal note, Ohio residents will find this book particularly interesting, the development of Columbus is used as a typical example of settlement and expansion.