"The land has always been more important to the American than the city,"?begins Christian Zapatka in this sweeping overview of American landscape?painting, planning, and design. Focusing largely on the origins and?progress of city and national parks, The American Landscape examines the?history of the physical environment of the United States from the 1830"s?to the present.??Broad in scope, this book covers a wide range of subjects, including the?paintings of the Hudson River School, which shaped America"s image of?itself as a sublime wilderness; architect Frederick Law Olmsted"s city?parks, planned to provide both literal and metaphorical oases in the?middle of dense urban zones; the creation of national parks such as?Yellowstone and Yosemite; the construction of the Lincoln Highway,?stretching from New York to San Francisco; Franklin D. Roosevelt"s New?Deal program for the city of Greenbelt, Maryland and other suburbs; Robert?Moses"s Jones Beach State Park and Parkway, intended to bring nature?within the reach of an urban population; and the relationship of?contemporary artists and architects to today"s landscape.