cover image Landscape in Sight: Looking at America

Landscape in Sight: Looking at America

J. B. Jackson, John Brinckerhoff Jackson. Yale University Press, $60 (440pp) ISBN 978-0-300-07116-0

Over the past few years, ""landscape studies"" (meaning the academic discipline, not plein air sketches) have been gaining in popularity, even reaching the mainstream with Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory. But for the late J.B. ""Brink"" Jackson (A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time), ""landscape"" as the interaction of humans with their environment, or ""history made visible,"" was his life's study and the name of the magazine he published for 17 years starting in 1951. These 46 essays, with a lengthy biographical introduction and a mid-volume editor's introduction, offer far more than the average reader would ever care to know about the evolution of the fence or the small-town courthouse square. On their own, many of the essays are cogent and engaging, but together they overwhelm the interest of all but the greatest devotee. One reason is the dated feel of the book--two-thirds of the essays are at least 30 years old. Another reason is that while Jackson describes and interprets the roads, buildings and countryside of the U.S. perceptively and eloquently, he doesn't go far enough in explaining why we should care. Among architectural historians, civil engineers, some sociologists and Landscape subscribers, Jackson's observations will be well received. His sweeping generalizations, unpopular positions (e.g., he likes parking lots and is hard on conservationists), creative etymologies (""kid"" for ""kidnapped""?) and reluctance to pass judgment on the society, culture and politics behind the worst of the human landscape will, however, limit his appeal. Photos and sketches by author. (Sept.)