Overview

The 1890s saw a revolution in advertising. Cheap paper, faster printing, rural mail delivery, railroad shipping, and chromolithography combined to pave the way for the first modern, mass-produced catalogs. The most prominent of these, reaching American households by the thousands, were seed and nursery catalogs with beautiful pictures of middle-class homes surrounded by sprawling lawns, exotic plants, and the latest garden accessories-in other words, the quintessential English-style garden. America's Romance with the English Garden is the story of tastemakers and homemakers, of savvy businessmen and a growing American middle class eager to buy their products. It's also the story of the beginnings of the modern garden industry, which seduced the masses with its images and fixed the English garden in the mind of the American consumer. Seed and nursery catalogs delivered aspirational images to front doorsteps from California to Maine, and the English garden became the look of America.

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9780821420355

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Reviews

Thomas Mickey is both a historian of public relations and a passionate Master Gardener, and his engaging book is full of colorful personalities--both plants and humans. <br><br>Ariel Swartley -- Master Gardener, photographer, and author of In Xanadu: A Little Book of Poppies

A penetrating look at the standardized English garden's grip on the American imagination. --Ted Steinberg, author of American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn <br>

Author Information

Thomas J. Mickey is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the Boston Architectural College's Landscape Institute, a Master Gardener, and a garden columnist. His other books include America's Romance with the English Garden, from Ohio University Press, and Best Garden Plants for New England.

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