”Beginning with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Roderick Floud describes the role of the monarchy and central and local government in creating gardens, as well as that of the (generally aristocratic or plutocratic) builders of the great gardens of Stuart, Georgian and Victorian England.
He considers the designers of these gardens as both artists and businessmen – often earning enormous sums by modern standards, matched by the nurserymen and plant collectors who supplied their plants.
He uncovers the lives and rewards of working gardeners, the domestic gardens that came with the growth of suburbs and the impact of gardening on technical developments from man-made lakes to central heating.”
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Roderick Floud has been a pioneer of two new kinds of history: using statistics to study the past and the history of human height and health. The economic history of gardens is his third innovation. He has taught at the universities of Cambridge, London and Stanford, has written or edited over 70 books and articles and is the long-standing editor of the Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain.
Källa: Bokförlaget Penguin
Bokomslagsbild: Chinese Pavilion in an English Garden, av Thomas Robins. Photo Bridgeman Images.
