Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802042945 ISBN 13: 9780802042941

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 1997

Synopsis

The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape combines many different approaches to understanding the immense ecological, educational, aesthetic and economic significance of the landscape. Using state of the art computer cartography, the atlas analyses the assemblage of features, both physical and human, which gives the Irish landscape its distinctive character. It provides detailed analysis of field and settlement patterns, buildings, archaeological/historical monuments, demesnes, villages and small towns, woodlands and bogs, roads, canals, railways and industrial archaeology. Drawing on appropriate disciplines (including geography, archaeology, history and palaeobotany), the atlas shows how the intricacy, interest and beauty of the Irish landscape were generated by human activities over long periods of time, and how the landscape is presently managed.

About this title

Review:

"Chosen as one of the Times Literary Supplement's (1997) International Books of the Year" 'Lavish in form and erudite in content. There are sections on bogs and demesnes, fields and villages, mining and the destruction of antiquities. The Irish landscape, now in places under grave ecological threat, has always been a visual palimpsest of the country's turbulent history, a text to be deciphered as much as to be savoured. This beautifully illustrated essay interweaves geology, archaeology, demography, social history and a host of other disciplines, moving from tourism to the rural poor, peat to parks, vernacular rural architecture to landscape management. It demonstrates the point that, rather like literary studies, there is almost nothing that geography isn't about; but after productions as ambitious as this, literary studies had better look to its laurels.'--Terry Eagleton "Times Literary Supplement " "Chosen as a Lingua Franca Breakthrough Book as one of the most illuminating recent books on Ireland" 'A remarkable multidisciplinary survey of the landscape that shaped Irish folklore, literature, and visual art - focusing on the seven centuries of colonial rule. This intelligently illustrated atlas provides a social, archaeological, and geological history of the land and a polemic against Ireland's failure to protect its rural region.'--Vera Kreilkamp "Lingua Franca "

About the Author:

F.H.A. Aalen is Professor of Geography at Trinity College, Dublin, and has served with various government bodies in Ireland regarding environmental issues, landscape preservation, and regional development. Kevin Whelan, widely regarded as Ireland's most important historical geographer, teaches at Boston College, Massachussets. Matthew Stout, the cartographic editor, is a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802042945
• ISBN 13: 9780802042941
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 353
• Editor: Aalen F.H.A., Whelan Kevin, Stout Matthew