The City Natural: “Garden and Forest” Magazine and the Rise of American EnvironmentalismShenHou. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013.

Abstract

The City Natural: and Magazine and the Rise of American Environmentalism Shen Hou. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013.Shen Hou's illuminating book The City Natural examines how the late nineteenth-century American magazine Garden and Forest (published from 1888 to 1897) responded to a range of environmental issues resulting from increased urbanization and western expansion. She discusses the magazine's ideological origins and how its more than 630 contributors espoused an environmental philosophy, which Hou terms the natural, one that promoted a comprehensive vision that balanced urban and rural needs, natural and local interests, utilitarian and aesthetic values, and professional training and amateur passion and suggested that this vision should guide the nation's environmental (182).Previously published works on Garden and Forest have either focused on specific themes of the magazine (e.g., forestry, botany, landscape architecture, horticulture) or have utilized the magazine as a repository of biographical information for use by historians. Hou takes a holistic approach, broadening the potential interdisciplinary appeal of this work. By situating her scholarship within the ideological, political, and social attitudes of the late nineteenth century, the author presents a cohesive portrait of an environmental movement (formed, in Hou's view, many decades prior to what we normally consider to be environmentalism), one that challenges the standard distinction historians have made between urban environmental issues and wilderness enthusiasm, between preserving natural beauty and conserving natural resources, and between reformers interested in urban beauty and those interested in urban health (9-10).The clear organization of The City Natural enhances the book's accessibility. The first two chapters focus on the origins of the environmental movement and Garden and Forest, respectively. Hou devotes the remaining chapters to what she considers to be four dominant themes found in Garden and Forest, first, the belief that increased urbanization necessitated the need for all people to experience nature spaces and that it should be the obligation of a civilized society to acknowledge, defend, and cultivate everyone's ability and right to satisfy that need in his or her life (4); the idea that landscape architects and city planners should be given the task to responsibly cultivate these nature spaces (supporting the idea that cities, representing the essence of modern civilization, should become well-planned, integrated wholes in which humans and nature coexisted side by side) (128); the belief that urban gardens of all sizes could adequately approximate one's experience of nature (and the idealist view that gardens could help bridge the social gap created by concentrated wealth and power and would break down barriers and encourage social equality) (135); and the idea that wilderness areas should be protected for the benefit of society. …