Ideology and Landscape in Historical Perspective
Essays on the Meanings of some Places in the Past

The issues raised by landscapes and their meanings are fundamental not only to historical geography but to any humanistic study, and render the geographical study of landscapes of interest to scholars in many disciplines.

Alan R. H. Baker (Edited by), Gideon Biger (Edited by)

9780521024709, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 March 2006

372 pages, 44 b/w illus. 33 maps
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.1 cm, 0.566 kg

"The essays collectively address the ideologies of political creed and religious belief and their expression, direct and indirect, on the landscape. An introduction to ideology and landscape and abundant illustrations combine to enrich a fascinating volume." G. J. Martin, Choice

Landscapes of material are also landscapes of meaning: praxis is itself symbolic, and all landscapes are symbolic in practice. Ideology and Landscape in Historical Perspective draws together fifteen historical geographers to examine landscapes as messages to be decoded, as signs to be deciphered. The range of examples is wide in terms of period, from the medieval to the modern, and of place, embracing the USA, Canada, Palestine, Israel, South Africa, India, Singapore, France and Germany. Each essay addresses a specific problem, but collectively they are principally concerned with the ideologies of religion and of politics, of Church and state, and their historical impress upon landscapes. The book is introduced by an essay which explores the dialectical understanding of landscapes, and landscapes as expressions of the connection of an ideology to a quest for order, to an assertion of authority and to a project of totalization. The issues raised by landscapes and their meanings - issues of individual and collective action, of objective knowing, of materialist and idealist explanation - are fundamental not only to historical geography but to any humanistic study, and render the geographical study of landscapes of interest to scholars in many disciplines.

List of figures
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction: on ideology and landscape Alan R. H. Baker
1. Ideology and landscape in early printed maps of Jerusalem Rehav Rubin
2. Ideological contexts and the reconstruction of biblical landscapes in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries: Dr Edward Wells and the historical geography of the Holy Land Robin A. Butlin
3. Land-God-man: concepts of land ownership in traditional cultures in Eretz-Israel Ruth Kark
4. Religious ideology and landscape formation: the case of the German Templars in Eretz-Israel Yossi Ben-Artzi
5. Planned temple towns and Brahmin villages as spatial expressions of the ritual politics of medieval kingdoms in South India Hans-Jürgen Nitz
6. Territorial strategies applied to captive peoples D. W. Meinig
7. Ideology and landscape of settler colonialism in Virginia and Dutch South Africa: a comparative analysis Leonard Guelke
8. Municipal sanitary ideology and the control of the urban environment in colonial Singapore Brenda S. A. Yeoh
9. Ideology and the landscape of British Palestine, 1918–1929 Gideon Biger
10. Ideology, identity, landscape and society in the lower colonies of British North America, 1840–1860 Graeme Wynn
11. Interpreting a nation's identity: artists as creators of national consciousness Brian S. Osborne
12. Collective consciousness and the local landscape: national ideology and the commune council of Mesland (Loir-et-Cher) as landscape architect during the nineteenth century Alan R. H. Baker
13. A contrast of Old World ideology: Germans and Scotch-Irish in the Ozarks Russel L. Gerlach
14. Ideology in the planned order upon the land: the example of Germany Dietrich Denecke
15. Parading: a lively tradition in early Victorian Toronto Peter G. Goheen
Index.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]