Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America, A. R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick (eds), Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, 250 pp., $23.95 (p/b) Over the last half century the scope of conservation has grown ever wider. This book illustrates this trend at its widest thus far, and raises some of the fundamental questions about the conservation effort that seem particularly appropriate when considering entire landscapes. How is a landscape delineated? What protection tools can be effective on such a scale? Whose landscape is being protected and for whom, given that most landscapes are historical palimpsests? How are the inevitable issues of contestation identified and dealt with? This, Dolores Hayden argues in her foreword, is a relatively recent field of scholarly research, and the editors make a similar point in their introduction about the recent growth of broader public concern. Yet it seems to have lengthy roots in American scholarship (Groth and Bressi, 1997): it stems from research in vernacular culture (the work of Wilbur Zelinsky), the ordinary qualities of landscape (which the writing of J.B. Jackson brought to wide attention), and an identification and appreciation of national characteristics in landscape (cf. Michael Conzen's Making of the American Landscape, 1990). To me, it is this rich history that allows the diverse essays in this collection to be such mines of fact and concept. The editors are to be commended in their selection and editorial control. In attempting to explore the meaning of the concept of `cultural landscape', the editors resort to many examples (pp. 3-6), but fail to give a wholly satisfactory definition. This is hardly surprising as this is a more elastic concept than many in the conservation sphere. These are large or small landscapes, showing human activity and elements of nature, but encompassing both planned and unplanned landscapes. `Culture' refers to society both as a whole and in sub-sets, thus ethnic cultural distinctiveness and the character and appearance (to use English conservation terms) that contribute so much to place identity are all involved. They pose a key question arriving from this flexible concept: `the very concept of cultural landscape preservation may sound like an oxymoron to some people; because cultural landscapes are composed of natural elements that grow, mature, erode, move, die, and revive once again, how can they possibly be preserved?' (p. 3). The book as a whole is a very good attempt at answering this puzzle. Schuyler and O'Donnell explore the history and preservation of urban parks and cemeteries. In the UK this would not be questioned, as these types of place have been protected as conservation areas for over three decades. However, there are clear conflicts between active recreational uses and preservation, particularly of an original designed layout. Alanen looks explicitly at `the ordinary', the vernacular landscapes of small towns and rural areas. Their protection reflects a move away from `placelessness'. Yet once an ordinary landscape is identified for national preservation, it ceases to be ordinary. There is a key conflict here that has not yet been resolved. Aponte-PareA s reviews preservation in the context of Puerto Rican barrios, particularly in New York. These migrants tend to live in very poor areas within an alien way of life, and build structures (often for recreational use) recalling traditional structures of their culture. …