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Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime

Published by Trinity University Press

Why is it that in the midst of a war, one can still find gardens?

In the most brutal environments, both stateside and on the battlefield, they continue to flourish. Wartime gardens are dramatic examples of what Kenneth I. Helphand calls “defiant gardens” – gardens created in extreme social, political, economic, or cultural conditions.

Illustrated with archival photos, this remarkable book examines gardens of war in the 20th century, including gardens built behind the trenches in World War I, in the Warsaw and other ghettos during World War II, and in Japanese-American internment camps, as well as gardens created by soldiers at their bases and encampments during wars in the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, and Korea.

Proving that gardens are far more than peaceful respites from the outside world, Defiant Gardens is a thought-provoking analysis of why people create natural spaces.

Praise for Defiant Gardens

Anyone doubting the therapeutic power of nature need only read Kenneth Helphand’s new book.

Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel

The University of Virginia Press

Dreaming Gardens is a pioneering work that provides, for the first time, a framework for understanding the contributions of landscape architecture in the creation of Israel. The development of the landscape architecture profession in Israel paralleled the development of the state, as immigrants brought skills and ideas from the Diaspora, creating a unique opportunity for designers to help shape their national identity.

Helphand’s clear writing, complemented by copious color illustrations, charts the shifting attitudes of this singular culture toward its land, landscapes, communities, and nation.

Praise for Dreaming Gardens

Dreaming Gardens is a solid, comprehensive historical survey of the contribution and role of landscape architects to the physical/visual shape of Israel since the late nineteenth century. Helphand’s scholarly tradition of cultural geography and his design sensibility result in a crafted narrative that deciphers the interrelationships between a land, a culture, the designed landscape, and the individual designers.

Yard, Street, Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space

(co-author Cynthia Girling) New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. (1994, paperback 1996)

This book was devised to help designers, planners, and developers of suburban communities deliver on their traditional promise to offer “the best of both worlds.” The authors take a hard look at more than a century of suburban planning and analyze developer-designed suburbs. Most importantly, they offer a dynamic approach to suburban development, rooted in historical examples and based on open space planning methods that can be applied to new or existing developments to transform them into sustainable, living communities.

Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape

Ellen Manchester-Photo Editor, Niwot, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart (1991) ASLA Merit Award (1992)

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