Synopses & Reviews
Anne Helmreich examines English garden designs as symbols of national identity.
Review
"Excellent..." Pre-Raphaelite Studies"Cambridge University Press's The English Garden and National Identity will catch the attention of all those interested in garden history. The American author, Anne Helmreich, examines the implications of fashions in gardening and of garden design between 1870 and the outbreak of World War I to reveal that that much writing on the subject was used to promoted nationalistic notions of "Englishness": the garden was promoted as a symbol of national identity." Art Newspaper"Satisfyingly accessible." H-Albion
Synopsis
This book examines the fierce debate on the styles and forms of garden design that took place in England c. 1870-1914. Focusing on the wild garden, the cottage garden, the formal garden and the synthesis of the formal and natural styles, Anne Helmreich argues that design principles were indelibly shaped by the quest for a powerful English national identity. She demonstrates how "Englishness" was purportedly expressed through the leading styles of garden design and why the garden was promoted as a symbol of national identity.
Table of Contents
1. Janus-faced England; 2. Re-presenting the countryside: William Robinson and the wild garden; 3. Domesticating the nation: the cottage garden; 4. Ordering the landscape: the Art Workers Guild and the formal garden; 5. The battle of the styles and the recounting of English garden history; 6. Gertrude Jekyll: transforming the local into the national; 7. Jekyll and Lutyens: resolving the debate.