Review: Landscape & Memory
Redactionele recensie - Kirkus ReviewsWith this fascinating, encyclopedic survey of cultural landscapes, Schama (Dead Certainties, 1991, etc.) demonstrates once again just why he holds a charmed place in the literature of historical interpretation. The landscape is a work of the mind, argues Schama, another compartment in the cultural baggage we all lug about. The scenery is ""built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock,"" shaped by the same rich and complex traditions that frame other aspects of our cultural world. Without the proper context (or rather the proper contexts, as our way of seeing changes with the prevailing ideological fashion), we are unable to harvest from a look at the land all that it has to offer -- all the allegorical, mythological, and metaphorical notes (not to mention a greater appreciation of just what we stand to lose by continuing to degrade the land); instead, we emerge with an impoverished sense of place. Schama proceeds by slicing the landscape into three elements -- wood, water, and rock-and then digging deep and wide to excavate their manifold traditions, unveiling a luxurious wealth of landscape history. But Schama's project goes beyond the cataloging of marvelous incidentals and minutiae-from Druid grove to tabernacle, from Mt. Olympus to Mt. Rushmore, from sacred stream to the Yangtze. As each and every aspect of the cultural landscape comes bubbling up through the overburden of history, Schama knits it together with what has come before, creating on the page an environment so palpable you can almost crawl inside and marvel at an ancient oak, a swath of meadow, and do so through the eyes of a pagan, or a renegade, or a Victorian mountaineer. Wearing his erudition lightly, Schama effortlessly juggles a landslide of material and presents his tale with the captivating, inviting intimacy of a gifted storyteller.
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Mark Levison - GoodreadsI really wanted to like this book, instead it wore me down. Others have covered well what is great about it. I will say only that Schama seemed to have been missing an editor. It took over two years ... Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Nick - GoodreadsUtterly beguiling accounts giving a tangible sense of space and place. Level of scholarship and detail remarkable. Must have a small army of researchers at work. Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Maddy - GoodreadsThis book brought out a lot of things for me: issues of anthropocentrism, how do we get out of it? Can we get out of it? Can we talk about the experiences of creatures or things that are not human ... Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Bobby Thym - GoodreadsCharlton Heston in his forced interview with Michael Moore reminded us all that Europe had a frontier, too. It's easy to forget this simple point. Schama looks at the art of the 18th and 19th ... Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Stephen Tuck - GoodreadsI read part of this as a young undergrad many many moons ago. I've now gotten a second-hand copy through Amazon and I'm looking forward to getting into it once I'm at least through Donald Kagan on Thucydides. Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - GoodreadsI can't say I read the whole book... but an excellent meditation on landscape in history and art
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Wayne - GoodreadsLacks focus - Schama can and will use any bit of history or tangent to illustrate broad themes which could have been condensed into a long article. This is entertaining at times, like watching a ... Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Lyn Elliott - GoodreadsThis is one of my all time favourite books. Schama's book is bursting with ideas about the meanings of different types of landscape in different places, and the ways these meanings are reflected in ... Volledige recensie lezen
Review: Landscape And Memory
Gebruikersrecensie - Tom Wolfe - GoodreadsMan creates myths around which political, religious and social activities cohere. Many of these deal with the relationship of a people to nature; for example the English and the sea, the Germans and ... Volledige recensie lezen
