Virginia Scott Jenkins

This is great summertime reading. Perfect for the lawn impaired or those with or without a green thumb.

This spring I acquired a Big Green Monster along with my house. I also got a citation from the police department when the height of my lawn went over the limit prescribed by the city ordnance. With this experience I learned that I have to feed, water, and trim my Big Green Monster, or the government will make me pay hefty fines. Thus, my interest in "The Lawn."

The author writes this heavy hitting book in a very historical and proper academic kind of style and is very serious about the content. The book is 256 pages in length and has approximately 50 pages of footnotes, refernces, and index that back up what is written. The author raises some serious questions that range from the economics of the business of lawn care to the impact of the lawn obsession on class and immigration issues. There is more to the American lawn than meets the eye and this hidden cultural and social history is fascinating. Who would have thought that a President obssessed with a game could influence so many people and make them think that it was necessary and expected to have a lawn that mimices the golf course? OK, that is over simplification, but it is succinct. Add to the president obssessed with golf the invention and perfecting of the mechanized lawn mower and you have the beginning of the reason for the Big Green Monster. The author writes a good history of a social phenomena.… (más)