Ideology and Landscape in Historical Perspective

Landscapes of material are also landscapes of meaning: praxis is itself symbolic and all landscapes are symbolic in practice. Ideology and Landscape in Historical Perspective draws together fifteen historical geographers to examine landscapes as messages to be decoded as signs to be deciphered. The range of examples is wide in terms of period from the medieval to the modern and of place embracing the USA Canada Palestine Israel South Africa India Singapore France and Germany. Each essay addresses a specific problem but collectively they are principally concerned with the ideologies of religion and of politics of Church and state and their historical impress upon landscapes. The book is introduced by an essay which explores the dialectical understanding of landscapes and landscapes as expressions of the connection of an ideology to a quest for order to an assertion of authority and to a project of totalization. The issues raised by landscapes and their meanings - issues of individual and collective action of objective knowing of materialist and idealist explanation - are fundamental not only to historical geography but to any humanistic study and render the geographical study of landscapes of interest to scholars in many disciplines. Language: English