The Lawn: A Social History - Tapa dura

"The Lawn: A Social History" explores the strange coming-together of means, opportunity and motive in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the lasting social changes that followed when the lawn emerged as the dominant feature of the modern built environment. After the lawn, leisure time would never be the same again. This book explains, in fascinating detail, how the lawn mower was the key enabling technology that let grass dominate the environment. And how, the enabling technology that in turn allowed suburbs to exist was commuter transport - as only suburbs gave enough space between and around the houses for lawns to fit. The author goes on to explain how mowers and suburbs would not have been enough to drive the lawn craze if people had not firmly believed that ownership of a lawn was proof that the owner was a person of status and wealth. "The Lawn: A Social History" takes the reader on a compelling journey that explains the origins of the lawn and how it changed the very way we live. Illustrated with contemporary images, this absorbing exposition on how the lawn, which we all take for granted, has become an integral part of our very existence.

Australian science writer and broadcaster Peter Macinnis has worked in museums, taught in schools, and written for online encyclopaedias. He is now a fulltime writer; among his many publications are Bittersweet: the story of sugar (Allen & Unwin 2002); The Killer Bean of Calabar: the story of poisons and poisoners (Allen & Unwin 2004), Rockets (Allen & Unwin 2003), Kokoda Track: 101 Days (Black Dog Books 2007) which was short-listed for the New South Wales Premier's History Awards in 2007, Pioneers, Heroes and Fools (Murdoch Books 2007), The Speed of Nearly Everything (Murdoch Books 2008), Mr Darwin's Incredible Shrinking World (Murdoch Books 2008) and 100 Discoveries (Murdoch Books 2009).