A Greene Country Towne

Philadelphia’s Ecology in the Cultural Imagination

• Author(s): Alan C. Braddock, Laura Turner Igoe,
• Publisher: Penn State Press
• Pages: 248
• ISBN_10: 0271078928
  ISBN_13: 9780271078922
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA) , Literary Criticism / American / General , Nature / Ecology , Art / American / General , Architecture / Landscape , History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) , Literary Criticism / General , Art / History / General ,

Description:...

An unconventional history of Philadelphia that operates at the threshold of cultural and environmental studies, A Greene Country Towne expands the meaning of community beyond people to encompass nonhuman beings, things, and forces.

By examining a diverse range of cultural acts and material objects created in Philadelphia—from Native American artifacts, early stoves, and literary works to public parks, photographs, and paintings—through the lens of new materialism, the essays in A Greene Country Towne ask us to consider an urban environmental history in which humans are not the only protagonists. This collection reimagines the city as a system of constantly evolving constituents and agencies that have interacted over time, a system powerfully captured by Philadelphia artists, writers, architects, and planners since the seventeenth century.

In addition to the editors, contributors to this volume are Maria Farland, Nate Gabriel, Andrea L. M. Hansen, Scott Hicks, Michael Dean Mackintosh, Amy E. Menzer, Stephen Nepa, John Ott, Sue Ann Prince, and Mary I. Unger.