Ideas of Landscape

Ideas of Landscape offers an engaging discussion of the theory and practice of landscape archaeology today. Drawing on his local experience, Matthew Johnson focuses on the so–called English landscape tradition and discusses why it is so distinctive: it stands at some distance from North American and other approaches, in which theory plays a more prominent role. Johnson identifies the origins of this tradition in English Romanticism, through the influence of the father of landscape history W.G. Hoskins among others, and argues that the strengths and weaknesses of landscape archaeology can be traced back to the underlying theoretical discontents of the Romantic movement. He offers an alternative agenda, which maps more closely on to the established empirical strengths of landscape study and is more relevant both to the thrust of interdisciplinary landscape studies and to contemporary social concerns. Passionately and accessibly written, this engaging book takes up a crucial strand in archaeological thinking and examines it critically for the first time.

List of Figures.

Acknowledgements.

The Argument.

Preface: Thinking about Swaledale.

1. Introduction.

2. Lonely as a Cloud.

3. A Good Pair of Boots.

4. The Loss of Innocence.

5. Landscape Archaeology Today.

6. The Politics of Landscape.

7. Conclusion.

Glossary.

References.

Index

Matthew Johnson is Professor of Archaeology, University of Southampton, and author of Behind the Castle Gate (2002), Archaeological Theory: An Introduction (Blackwell, 1999), An Archaeology of Capitalism (Blackwell, 1996), and Housing Culture (1993).

"I have always found Johnson s work extremely inviting, engaging and thoughtful. Ideas of Landscape is no exception." ( Cambridge Archaeological Journal, October 2008)

One might suggest that in this excellent work, Johnson has written an archaeology of knowledge concerning landscape studies. A glossary and illustrations add meaningfully to a work of much industry Highly recommended. (Choice)

Ideas of Landscape is a towering contribution––shall we say, a high vantage point from which one can
survey a scholarly landscape? (Canadian Journal of Archaeology)