Big Sur: The Making Of A Prized California Landscape
by Shelley Alden Brooks /
2017 / English / EPUB
6.2 MB Download
Big Sur embodies much of what has defined California since the
mid-twentieth century. A remote, inaccessible, and undeveloped
pastoral landscape until 1937, Big Sur quickly became a cultural
symbol of California and the West, as well as a home to the
ultrawealthy. This transformation was due in part to writers and
artists such as Robinson Jeffers and Ansel Adams, who created an
enduring mystique for this coastline. But Big Sur’s prized
coastline is also the product of the pioneering efforts of
residents and Monterey County officials who forged a
collaborative public/private preservation model for Big Sur that
foreshadowed the shape of California coastal preservation in the
twenty-first century. Big Sur’s well-preserved vistas and
high-end real estate situate this coastline between American
ideals of development and the wild. It is a space that challenges
the way most Americans think of nature, of people’s relationship
to nature, and of what in fact makes a place “wild.” This book
highlights today’s intricate and ambiguous intersections of
class, the environment, and economic development through the lens
of an iconic California landscape.
Big Sur embodies much of what has defined California since the
mid-twentieth century. A remote, inaccessible, and undeveloped
pastoral landscape until 1937, Big Sur quickly became a cultural
symbol of California and the West, as well as a home to the
ultrawealthy. This transformation was due in part to writers and
artists such as Robinson Jeffers and Ansel Adams, who created an
enduring mystique for this coastline. But Big Sur’s prized
coastline is also the product of the pioneering efforts of
residents and Monterey County officials who forged a
collaborative public/private preservation model for Big Sur that
foreshadowed the shape of California coastal preservation in the
twenty-first century. Big Sur’s well-preserved vistas and
high-end real estate situate this coastline between American
ideals of development and the wild. It is a space that challenges
the way most Americans think of nature, of people’s relationship
to nature, and of what in fact makes a place “wild.” This book
highlights today’s intricate and ambiguous intersections of
class, the environment, and economic development through the lens
of an iconic California landscape.