Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The authors of this monumental work have attempted nothing less than a one-volume visual history of world gardening, from Babylon to Bi Shu Zhan Zhuang, with many fascinating digressions in between. The several hundred beautiful color photographs are accompanied by long, authoritative captions, while the chronological unfolding of Western gardening is interleaved with sections on Chinese and Japanese gardens, "Borrowed Landscapes," and other cross-cultural themes. The result is not just a summation of gardening through the ages but a complex and involving examination of the ways in which humans have transformed their landscapes for pleasure and utility. The book can be leafed through casually many times or read as a narrative. It is probably unmatched as a single-volume visual history.
The New York Times Book Review, Michael Pollan
These often brilliant little photographic essays, which touch on everything from grottoes to water staircases, follies to parterres, are the best parts of this odd volume, underscoring the power of a few simple landscape ideas to endure across time and culture.
Photographic Garden History
Photographic Garden History,Roger Phillips,Random House,0679448977,Gardening/Plants,Gardening / General
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