"Mr. Jackson is at all times acutely observant and down to earth. This is one of the most interesting essay collections I have read in years, and it deserves a wide audience."--Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal "Mr. Jackson is the contemplative explorer, distilling his trenchant observations in limpid, conversational prose."--Suzanne Stephens, New York Times Book Review "[Jackson] really admires the various signs of human initiative and creativity no matter how commonplace, and he delights in the ordinary interactions that take place between people and their surroundings. This is Jackson at his best: lucid, provocative, iconoclastic, elegant."--Witold Rybcznski, New York Review of Books "Insightful meditations on our changing relationship to space, communities, and roads will startle some environmental purists but challenge the open minded to consider new ways of thinking about place.

"-- Wilson Library Bulletin "In the increasingly boring public discourse on the environment, Jackson breaks all molds. This godfather of American landscape studies combines the historian's long-view with a photographer's eye. His elegant and lucid voice of sanity is just as likely to be calling out from the parking garage as the wilderness."-- Fodder "This godfather of American landscape studies combines the historian's long view with a photographer's eye. His elegant and lucid voice of sanity is just as likely to be calling out from the parking garage as the wilderness."-- Hungry Mind Review Winner of the 1994 Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for the best collection of essays published in 1994 given by the PEN American Center.