Readers' rating:
Published in USA
Mar 2006
224 pages
Genre: History, Science & Current Affairs
Publication Information
Americans are locked in a love-hate relationship with their lawns, and Ted Steinberg tells you why. The rise of the perfect lawn represents one of the most profound transformations in the history of the American landscape. Today the lawn is one of America's leading "crops," outstripping cotton in acres by a factor of two. American Green, Ted Steinberg's witty exposé of this sometimes bizarre phenomenon, traces the history of the lawn from its explosion in the postwar suburban community of Levittown—just miles from where Steinberg grew up—to the present love affair with turf colorants, leaf blowers, and riding mowers. For half a century, Americans have been on a quest for the greenest, weed-free, ultra-trim turf imaginable. But perfection has its costs. Blending muckraking journalism and social history, Steinberg looks at both the lighter and the darker side of the all-American landscape, from mower accidents and pesticide poisonings to lawn-mower racing and the man so addicted to perfection that he re-created Augusta's 12th hole in his backyard.
Click to the right or left of the sample to turn the page.
(If no book jacket appears in a few seconds, then we don't have an excerpt of this book or your browser is unable to display it)
"There's plenty of muckraking outrage, but it's delivered in a friendly, engaging voice that might just win over skeptics." - PW.- Kirkus.
The information about American Green shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's online-magazine that keeps our members abreast of notable and high-profile books publishing in the coming weeks. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.
A timely novel that explores the human capacity for resiliency and compassion.
About the book
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
by Hiro Arikawa
A life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice.
Reader Reviews
Paris Echo
by Sebastian Faulks
A story of resistance, complicity, and an unlikely, transformative friendship.
Reader Reviews
Strangers in Budapest
A couple trying to make a new life in a foreign land find themselves drawn into a cultural and generational vendetta.
Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends books that we believe to be best in class. Books that will whisk you to faraway places and times, that will expand your mind and challenge you -- the kinds of books you just can't wait to tell your friends about.
Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info & giveaways by email.
