Reviews for A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century

The average rating for A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-01-22 00:00:00 Nelson Dittmar This book is quite the epoch about the life and work of Fredrick Law Olmsted. He is best known for his work designing public parks like Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan. But he had such a rich and full life! Because of his father's patronage, he was able to try his hand at many different occupations before settling on his occupational legacy. He was a "scientific farmer", a newspaper journalist, he ran a publishing house, he wrote a couple successful books, he was a leader of the US Sanitary Commission (a precursor to The Red Cross) and he managed a gold mine estate in California! The book is long and tedious but it's a detailed account of his life. I read this over a period of two months as my " slow and steady", reading about 3 chapters each time I chose to read it. Anything more than that and the writing and facts became seemingly dry. It was a pleasure to see so many familiar names mentioned who were friends, colleages, and acquaintances of Olmsted. And... He was a staunch abolitionist! For that time period, it was a rare thing to find a wealthy man opposed to owning slaves. The great lengths he went to, to learn and uncover information about the nature of slave owners treatment of their slaves was estimably impressive! He wanted information for himself and went undercover in the south traveling from plantation to plantation in hopes of gathering truth.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-20 00:00:00 Peter Armour He designed Central Park and Belle Isle. A handy guy to have around.