Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Dümpelmann tracks the history of the modern street tree . . . A deep, scholarly dive into urban society’s need for—and relationship with—trees that sought to return the natural world to the concrete jungle.”—Adrian Higgins,
Washington Post"The book makes a convincing alternative case from the more traditional approach of "nature versus culture" dichotomy. Instead, Dümpelmann portrays street trees as an integral part of the urban fabric. Professionals in forestry, urban development, and landscape architecture, as well as readers with a strong interest in the history of the urban landscape, will find this book enlightening as we move towards resilient cities of tomorrow."—Lumi Kirk,
Garten + LandschaftSeeing Trees has won the 2019 John Brinckerhoff Jackson prize, sponsored by the Foundation for Landscape Studies
Winner of the 2022 Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians
Finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe award for non-fiction, sponsored by The Boston Authors Club
“In this imaginative and deeply researched work, Sonja Dümpelmann truly helps us to ‘see trees’ in the careful chronologies she develops and the political messages that these trees represented within their times and places.”—Keith Morgan, Boston University
"In
Seeing Trees the distinguished scholar Sonja Dümpelmann employs her linguistic ability, knowledge, and imaginative use of the archival resources in both Berlin and New York to extend the boundaries of landscape history.”—Kenneth Helphand, University of Oregon, author of
Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime“Sonja Dümpelmann distills a rich and textured history of street trees—the people involved, technical approaches employed, and the way street trees served as both a polemic and as a point of unification for people.”—Susan Herrington, author of
Landscape Theory in Design“This meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated book chronicles the multifaceted identities of trees—as food, fuel, shelter, and defense—and offers us new ways of reading social history into the natural world.”—Jennifer S. Light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“A signal contribution to the history of landscape design and city planning. Writing with narrative verve, Sonja Dümpelmann turns rigorous scholarship into a fascinating story of time and place for both the academic and general reader.”—Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, President, Foundation for Landscape Studies
