A Brief History of Gardening
A Brief History of Gardeningcarries you across six continents and through thousands of years of stories about the human urge to grow plants--for food and pleasure. Author Neil Fairbairn opens a window to this fascinating but often forgotten past, describing how central Africa was once a breadbasket, revealing what the Aztecs sacrificed to appease their rain god, and explaining how a 12th-century Chinese emperor's landscaping project produced a much-awaited male heir. With his rich language, gift for storytelling, and keen sense of humor, Fairbairn dips in and out of different lands and varied lives united by a common theme: the peculiar craft--or obsession--of gardening.With more than 350 illustrations,A Brief History of Gardeningis a visual celebration of gardens and those who tend them. Each chapter includes a four-page time line to guide you through agricultural trends and to place those events and movements within history. In the book's many short essays, you'll discover what the first novel,Tale of Genji, tells us about Japanese flower fetishes; how herbalist healers were persecuted during the Salem witch trials; and what theKama Sutrahas to say about gardening. Fairbairn's love for the garden, his fresh, engrossing imagery, and the book's appealing design sweep you along through the years--and hundreds of gardens--in an exuberant ride.