Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Preface to the Second Edition; Acknowledgements; Table of Contents; Foreword to the First Edition; Introduction; 1 Recognizing Nature's bequest; Climates; The physiographic layout; Natural regions; The Far West; The Central Interior; The East; 2 Retrieving American Indian landscapes; Adapting to new environments; Toward an agricultural landscape in the East; Pueblo and irrigation agriculture in the Southwest; The European intrusion; The surviving legacy; 3 Refashioning Hispanic landscapes; Spanish exploration; Populating the land
Shaping the bordersSpanish legacy; 4 Retracing French landscapes in North America; Footholds on the continent; The core landscapes of New France; The French crescent: St. Lawrence to the Mississippi; The legacy; 5 Americanizing English landscape habits; An American version of England; A different sort of place; A different sort of people; Two regions of the Northeast; The New England culture region; The Pennsylvania culture region; The two landscapes of the Northeast: differences in vernacular architecture; Barns and other rural matters; Urban forms
The cultural-geographical baggage goes west6 Transforming the Southern plantation; Establishment of plantation agriculture in continental North America; The ""Old South"" plantation; The ""New South"" plantation; Toward the modern plantation; The increase of fragmented mega-farms; 7 Gridding a national landscape; A system to span the continent; Single farmsteads; Townsites; The section roadscape; The conservation landscape; Toward a national landscape; 8 Clearing the forests; The landscape of clearing; The landscape of logging; The landscape of fuel gathering; The balance sheet
9 Remaking the prairiesVegetation and settlement; Migration patterns; The western Plains; Town settlement; Conclusion; 10 Watering the deserts; Finding the desert; Transforming the desert: looking at dams and ditches; The prehistoric legacy in central Arizona; Hispanic settlement in the Rio Grande Valley; The Mormon desert; Federal transformation of the Colorado River; Conclusions; 11 Inscribing ethnicity on the land; Why here and not there? The shaping of early ethnic landscapes; Enduring rural and small town landscape features; Ethnic cityscapes
Ethnic tourism and ethnic heritage landscapesAnd what of the future?; 12 Organizing religious landscapes; The mainly metropolitan churchscape; Matters architectural; The rural scenes; The other structures; Cemeteries; Signs; Envoi; 13 Mechanizing the American earth; Colonial beginnings; Emergence of the manufacturing belt; Specialization in core and periphery; The blend of old and new; 14 Building American cityscapes; The economic landscape; Social landscapes; Governance and the landscape; The American way; 15 Asserting central authority; The early federal presence
Summary
The only compact yet comprehensive survey of environmental and cultural forces that have shaped the visual character and geographical diversity of the settled American landscape. The book examines the large-scale historical influences that have molded the varied human adaptation of the continent's physical topography to its needs over more than 500 years. It presents a synoptic view of myriad historical processes working together or in conflict, and illustrates them through their survival in or disappearance from the everyday landscapes of today
