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Cargando... Sanctified Landscape: Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820-1909por David Schuyler
Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.  tomgirl571 | May 26, 2012 |  sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
The Hudson River Valley was the first iconic American landscape. Beginning as early as the 1820's, artists and writers found new ways of thinking about the human relationship with the natural world along the Hudson. Here, amid the most dramatic river and mountain scenery in the eastern United States, Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper created a distinctly American literature, grounded in folklore and history, that contributed to the emergence of a sense of place in the valley. Painters, led by Thomas Cole, founded the Hudson River School, widely recognized as the first truly national style of art. As the century advanced and as landscape and history became increasingly intertwined in the national consciousness, an aesthetic identity took shape in the region through literature, art, memory, and folklore-even gardens and domestic architecture. In Sanctified Landscape, David Schuyler recounts this story of America's idealization of the Hudson Valley during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Schuyler's story unfolds during a time of great change in American history. At the very moment when artists and writers were exploring the aesthetic potential of the Hudson Valley, the transportation revolution and the rise of industrial capitalism were transforming the region. The first generation of American tourists traveled from New York City to Cozzens Hotel and the Catskill Mountain House in search of the picturesque. Those who could afford to live some distance from jobs in the city built suburban homes or country estates. Given these momentous changes, it is not surprising that historic preservation emerged in the Hudson Valley: the first building in the United States preserved for its historic significance is Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh. Schuyler also finds the seeds of the modern environmental movement in the transformation of the Hudson Valley landscape. Richly illustrated and compellingly written, Sanctified Landscape makes for rewarding reading. Schuyler expertly ties local history to national developments, revealing why the Hudson River Valley was so important to nineteenth-century Americans-and why it is still beloved today. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)974.7History and Geography North America Northeastern U.S. New YorkClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (4.5)
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What I loved so much is that these writers and artists are mostly people I had never heard of. Thomas Cole is one who really stood out to me. A painter from NY, he made the Hudson River Valley the focal point of most of his artwork, including a series of paintings called "the Course of Empire", in which he paints the valley as it was once with little human impact, and then paints it as humans slowly start making their mark, and then the last painting is a completely civilized Hudson with not very much green left. He, along with pretty much all of the other people mentioned in the book, were naturalists or environmentals, even if they didn't realize it.
Many of the people, including John Burroughs (a naturalist who lived in a cabin in the valley), tried to convince people to leave the natural beauty around them. They were concerned that too many trees were being cut down and too many railroads were being put up. And seeing what the Hudson River is now (polluted.....), they were so right, and people should have listened to them.
There is so much history about the region in the book. There is also a ton of information on the authors and writers in it. I wish I had made a list of everyone who had been mentioned throughout the book. Unfortunately, I got this ebook from netgalley and it has expired, so I can't go back through it. The two people I mentioned above are the two I was most drawn to while reading though. Thomas Cole and John Burroughs are two people I definitely want to read more about. I had never heard of them before reading Sanctified Lanscape. Now I am intrigued.
One thing is for sure, I would LOVE to be able to go back in time and see what the Hudson Valley looked like before settlers came along. I bet it was beautiful, green, and vast. (