Learning from Looking: Geographic and Other Writing about the American Cultural Landscape

Abstract

FOR AS LONG AS HISTORY HAS BEEN RECORDED, PEOPLE HAVE WONDERED about man-made patterns on the surface of the earth-the patterns that together compose the human landscape. Some of those people have called themselves geographers, trying to describe those patterns in words or maps, trying to explain how those patterns came to be, and trying to unravel their cultural meaning. Those geographers who share a common passion to understand cultural landscapes habitually devour the literature of any academic field that concerns itself-however marginally-with describing and interpreting material culture. Quite naturally, the literature of academic geography contains an alluring array of writing and maps about material artifacts. This essay reviews a body of recent literature about the American cultural landscape, a literature that has deep intellectual roots, and that has flowered luxuriantly in the last twenty or so years. Given the fact that many of the most imaginative and energetic students of American cultural landscapes are just now entering their most productive years, it is safe to predict that the growth may become yet more fruitful.