Back to Nature: The Arcadian Myth in Urban America

By Peter J. Schmitt

Book Overview

Peter J. Schmitt describes the many ways in which America's urban middle class became involved with nature from the turn of the century to shortly after World War I, and he assess the influence of the Arcadian myth on American culture. With sympathy and gentle irony, he surveys the manifestations of the American love affair with the country: summer camps, the beginnings of wildlie protection and the conservation crusade, landscaped cemeteris, Christian ornithology, and wilderness novels. The Arcadian drive reflected urban values, as the city-dweller sought virtue in nature. Landscape gardening, country clubs, national parks, and scenic turnoffs imposed the industrial ethic of order, neatness, and regularity on natural landscaps. Nature study and anthropomorphic animal stories taught moral values to children.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801840139
• ISBN13: 9780801840135
• Release Date: February 1990
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher