The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession

by Virginia Scott Jenkins

Lawns now blanket thirty million acres of the United States, but until the late nineteenth century few Americans had any desire for a front lawn, much less access to seeds for growing one. In her comprehensive history of this uniquely American obsession, Virginia Scott Jenkins traces the origin of the front lawn aesthetic, the development of the lawn-care industry, its environmental impact, and modern as well as historic alternatives to lawn mania.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nature, American, Cities, Research, American History

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 1994

Reviews

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating journey into the lawn obsession

I enjoyed learning about the history of lawns in America. It was interesting to see how lawns, lawn equipment, herbicides, and pesticides were invented, and introduced to modern suburban homeowners. The author's research on the history of the lawn from the early 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century was well-researched, well-written, and fascinating. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in lawn care and would like to know how the obsession with lawns was started and marketed over the years. I also found the information on the history of herbicides and pesticides to be quite informative. An overall interesting read on a different subject matter than I would normally read, or be interested in.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only made it about halfway through this book. The strong part of this tome is that the author clearly conducted significant research on the history of the lawn in the United States. The weak part of this read is that it is written like a research paper in college; completely factual, but totally devoid of emotion.

Maybe it's the fact that I've never had a lawn to care for, or perhaps the repetitive, just the facts style of the book made me want to fall asleep, but I finally gave up on finishing it and have moved on.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a ton of lawn history books, and this is definitely my favorite. It's the most complete and well reasearched work I've encountered on this subject. It's super extensive and uses a ton of interesting primary sources that others miss out on. Other reviewers said they found it dry (it is, a bit) but I preferred the restrained and professional style to the corny pop-sci tone of Ted Steinberg.

[Sean McDonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting look into the history and psychology of the American Lawn, relying heavily on the advertising of the eras and the data available from the trade organizations of the lawn industry. It's a little hard to read as the first section is almost entirely about plants and the English, which makes for a slow start. I put the book down for a while, and lost track where I put it, so I had to start over, which helped in the first chapter immensely. The rest of the book picks up steam and examines the lawn as an unnatural part of the American landscape, culminating in the natural landscapes movement that started taking shape in the 70's and early 80's. This book, published in 1994, could use a second edition with more modern techniques and discussions.

I don't care for some of the organization of material, as a paragraph will frequently cover a single topic for the span of 50 years, then go back to the same starting time period about another subject and follow that thread for thirty years. It's not how I would have organized the book, but I didn't write it, and it was a worthwhile read no matter how it's organized.

[Henrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and well-researched. An entertaining and informative history of the American lawn.
Interesting to see how something we take so for granted, both in America and in my native Norway, is a relatively recent invention.

"Lawns were not a need expressed by consumers that was then met by producers. The need was fostered by producers, who continued to raise the standards of what constituted a good or acceptable front lawn. Americans were taught to value lawns and were sold the equipment and supplies to care for them"

[Daniel Stec · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a years long growing discomfort and confusion with lawns, this book gave me everything I needed to know of how and why we got here.

A potentially over saturated look at the history of the lawn, it’s now left me craving the science of the impact of the modern lawn and what to do now.

A must read to understand the insanity that persists in the US, 30 years later at least.

[Carol Bonigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid micro History of the American Lawn. Why are we so obsessed? Hint: propaganda from US Golf Association and USDA. They were forced upon us unwilliningly and will hopefully die off some day.
The book is neither pro or anti-lawn. Just a solid history book.

[Duane Andersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting. Solidly researched. Academic in its approach.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do the Garden Club of America, the U.S. Golf association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Thomas Jefferson have in common?

[Herschel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dry look at the history of lawns. Nothing terribly exciting happens, but it is well researched and has tons of interesting information in it.

[Beegobug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author does an excellent job of bringing to the surface something we all take for granted: the lawn. Interesting to take it out of the accepted norm and look at it from a more critical perspective.

As any homeowner can attest, one's relationship to nature changes drastically when one is in charge of its upkeep in the form of a yard.

Birds and squirrels, cats and possums, all become a potential threat to one's peace and harmony, not to mention trees that, if allowed to grow freely, might let go of a branch right on top of the roof, or worse yet, the neighbor's; and tree roots that can grow into pipes and destroy the plumbing so completely as to keep one from being able to flush a toilet ever again without fear of massive overflow.

Then comes the lawn - always needing to be green, to be kept short and neat and if not, the raised eyebrow of society goes sharply up.

I know this to be true: all of us who believe strongly in environmental issues and want to lower our impact on the environment are at odds with our own way of life - we contradict ourselves at every turn. I don't say this with judgment, rather with compassion for the predicament we're in.

This book makes one think about why exactly a lawn is important and begin to question the American way of life with all its contradictions and our relationship with nature, however you choose to define it.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to read about the importation of the lawn and European and Asiatic strains to replace native american grasses and convert cleared land to more efficient grazatoriums. But the further toward the present it gets the more it does little more than affirm vague notions that lawn = bad without getting much deeper than that.

And holy shit the writing is bad.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very, very thorough history of lawns and suburban gardening in the US. I found the co-evolution of gardening and American war/economics/social movements through the years very interesting. Having said that, the author is biased against the conventional lawn industry, and even though I am too I think it hurts the integrity of the book as a historic account.