This insightful book explores the relationship we have with gardens and with the act of gardening, considering in detail the psychological, social and health benefits. From the Garden of Eden and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to Kew Gardens and the humble suburban plot, it is self-evident that gardens and gardening have an ever-present attraction. This book addresses the appeal of gardens from a psychological perspective: Why do we spend our cash on plants and gardening paraphernalia and give hours of our time to tending our annuals, bulbs and shrubs? Why do we travel to see gardens in our own and other countries? The theme of this book lies in identifying the individual and social rewards to be found in gardens and gardening, particularly within our own private gardens. The Psychological Appeal of Gardens will be of great interest to students and scholars of applied psychology, as well those taking horticultural courses of various levels, from professional horticulturalists to enthusiastic amateurs.

"This insightful book explores the relationship we have with gardens and with the act of gardening, considering in detail the psychological, social and health benefits. From the Garden of Eden and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to Kew Gardens and the humble suburban plot, it is self-evident that gardens and gardening have an ever-present attraction. This book addresses the appeal of gardens from a psychological perspective: Why do we spend our cash on plants and gardening paraphernalia and give hours of our time to tending our annuals, bulbs, and shrubs? Why do we travel to see gardens in our own and other countries? The theme of this book lies in identifying the individual and social rewards to be found in gardens and gardening, particularly within our own private gardens. The Psychological Appeal of Gardens will be of great interest to students and scholars of applied psychology, as well those taking horticultural courses of various levels, from professional horticulturalists to enthusiastic amateurs"--

Examines gardens as works of art in order to challenge the assertions of contemporary aesthetic theory that art can only be studied as part of a particular historical and cultural context, that art has no relation to the survival of people, and that all signifying systems are like language. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In What Gardens Mean, Stephanie Ross draws on philosophy as well as the histories of art, gardens, culture, and ideas to explore the magical lure of gardens. Paying special attention to the amazing landscape gardens of eighteenth-century England, she situates gardening among the other fine arts, documenting the complex messages gardens can convey and tracing various connections between gardens and the art of painting. What Gardens Mean offers a distinctive blend of historical and contemporary material, ranging from extensive accounts of famous eighteenth-century gardens to incisive connections with present-day philosophical debates. And while Ross examines aesthetic writings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Joseph Addison’s Spectator essays on the pleasures of imagination, the book’s opening chapter surveys more recent theories about the nature and boundaries of art. She also considers gardens on their own terms, following changes in garden style, analyzing the phenomenal experience of viewing or strolling through a garden, and challenging the claim that the art of gardening is now a dead one. (ed.)

This timely and innovative book provides a detailed history of marketing to children, revealing the strategies that shape the design of toys and have a powerful impact on the way children play. Stephen Kline looks at the history and development of children's play culture and toys from the teddy bear and Lego to the Barbie doll, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He profiles the rise of children's mass media - books, comics, film and television - and that of the specially stores such as Toys 'R' Us, revealing how the opportunity to reach large audiences of children through television was a pivotal point in developing new approaches to advertising. Contemporary youngsters, he shows, are catapulted into a fantastic and chaotic time-space continuum of action toys thanks to the merchandisers' interest in animated television. Kline looks at the imagery and appeal of the toy commercials and at how they provide a host of stereotyped figures around which children can organize their imaginative experience. He shows how the deregulation of advertising in the United States in the 1980s has led directly to the development of the new marketing strategies which use television series to saturate the market with promotional "character toys". Finally, in a powerful re-examination of the debates about the cultural effects of television, Out of the Garden asks whether we should allow our children's play culture to be primarily defined and created by marketing strategies, pointing to the unintended consequences of a situation in which images of real children have all but been eliminated from narratives about the young.

This book is a literary history of the Noble Savage and a comprehensive metamorphology of the American mind. Wide-ranging and deep-diving, this book suggests many reevaluations of American heroes and attitudes.

Creation and access to green spaces promotes individual human health, especially in therapeutic contexts among those suffering traumatic events. But what of the role of access to green space and the act of creating and caring for such places in promoting social health and well-being? Greening in the Red Zone asserts that creation and access to green spaces confers resilience and recovery in systems disrupted by violent conflict or disaster. This edited volume provides evidence for this assertion through cases and examples. The contributors to this volume use a variety of research and policy frameworks to explore how creation and access to green spaces in extreme situations might contribute to resistance, recovery, and resilience of social-ecological systems.

Cognitive Psychology is a brand new textbook by Ken Gilhooly, Fiona Lyddy & Frank Pollick. Based on a multidisciplinary approach, the book encourages students to make the connections between cognition, cognitive neuroscience and behaviour. The book provides an up-to-date, accessible introduction to the subject, showing students the relevance of cognitive psychology through a range of examples, applications and international research. Recent work from neuroscience is integrated throughout the book, and coverage is given to rapidly-developing topics, such as emotion and cognition. Cognitive Psychology is designed to provide an accessible and engaging introduction to Cognitive Psychology for 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students. It takes an international approach with an emphasis on research, methodology and application.

In TThe Art and Philosophy of the Garden, philosopher David Fenner and botanist Ethan Fenner examine the philosophical ideas lying behind one of the most universal human activities. They strip away our assumptions and take a close look at gardens -- starting with a definition of what a garden is -- and argue for a particularly way of understanding their aesthetic properties. Fenner and Fenner make the case that many gardens have a claim to being legitimate works of art. Their comprehensive and accessible discussion contributes to the resurgence of the theory of gardens and gardening, and will also interest any thoughtful person who cares about gardens.

Pluralist democratic systems, according to Philipe Braud, do not do what they claim to do, but rather, serve to channel, diffuse, or reconcile society's conflicts. As one reviewer of the original French edition notes, the book can be seen as part of a long tradition in European political thought that sees democracy as a front for capitalism. Braud asserts that pluralist democracy is credible only because of the complete failure of communism. There is no government by the people; the rule of law is a tautology. What fundamental changes occur happen because of the forces of economics, culture, and labor, and in response to political direction. The efficacy of democracy comes from its ability to manage social emotions, specifically by addressing anguish with promises of security and identity: by meeting the need to be wooed and seduced by constant personalization of politics, offering the illusion of choice; by transposing the frustrations of gender, age, and class inequalities into the political domain; by providing pleasure in the game of politics; and by promising greed, power, and its prerequisites. Pluralist democracies know best how to manage these emotions, and how to use them without suffocating them. A powerful and disturbing vision of pluralist democracy that will be of great interest to students and scholars of contemporary political thought.