Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Other Publications
    • UWP

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Landscape Journal
  • Other Publications
    • UWP
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Landscape Journal

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Follow uwp on Twitter
  • Visit uwp on Facebook
Research ArticleArticles

Reading Landscape: J. B. Jackson and the Cultural Landscape Idea at Midcentury

Jeffrey D. Blankenship
Landscape Journal, February 2016, 35 (2) 167-184; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.35.2.167
Jeffrey D. Blankenship
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The idea of cultural landscapes emerged in academic literature in the mid-twentieth century. The primary catalyst for this renewed interest in landscapes that signify human cultures in complex relationships with the natural world was the essayist and critic John Brinckerhoff Jackson and his magazine Landscape. During the years of Jackson’s editorship (1951–1968), the magazine became a gathering place for scholars from different disciplines who were drawn to Jackson’s unique voice. Jackson’s essays in the magazine used the term landscape in ways not common outside of the field of human geography. Taking his initial cues from a twentieth century geographic literature concerned with the everyday artifacts of human culture, Jackson wrote of landscapes that seemed defiantly prosaic: city streets, farms, homes, highways, and the commercial strip. He insisted that understanding how to read these places for their social, historical, and ecological content was a necessary prelude to imagining new prototypes for the design of human environments. J. B. Jackson and his magazine ultimately nurtured an understanding of landscape as a contextually rich medium composed of a diversity of cultures and complex social processes, layers of visible history and hidden narratives, and an interdependent human ecology that continues to shape landscape theory and practice today.

  • Cultural landscape
  • Landscape magazine
  • J. B. Jackson
  • human geography
  • © 2016 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Landscape Journal: 35 (2)
Landscape Journal
Vol. 35, Issue 2
1 Feb 2016
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Landscape Journal.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Reading Landscape: J. B. Jackson and the Cultural Landscape Idea at Midcentury
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Landscape Journal
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Landscape Journal web site.
Citation Tools
Reading Landscape: J. B. Jackson and the Cultural Landscape Idea at Midcentury
Jeffrey D. Blankenship
Landscape Journal Feb 2016, 35 (2) 167-184; DOI: 10.3368/lj.35.2.167

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Reading Landscape: J. B. Jackson and the Cultural Landscape Idea at Midcentury
Jeffrey D. Blankenship
Landscape Journal Feb 2016, 35 (2) 167-184; DOI: 10.3368/lj.35.2.167
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • A Tribute to Robert B. Riley 1931–2019
  • Fluid or Fixed? Processes that Facilitate or Constrain a Sense of Inclusion in Participatory Schoolyard and Park Design
  • Diversity and Inclusion by Design: A Challenge for Us All
Show more Articles

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • cultural landscape
  • Landscape magazine
  • J. B. Jackson
  • human geography
UWP

© 2023 Landscape Journal

Powered by HighWire