On Other Grounds

Examines eighteenth-century French and English landscape gardens as representations of nationalist expression.On Other Grounds addresses the broader impacts of the English landscape movement on French gardening during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Through readings of the relevant texts of major authors of the period-including Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Condillac, Descartes, Diderot, Walpole, and Locke-the author demonstrates the links between landscape gardening, the formation of national identity, and nationalism in England and France. Themes that are central to Enlightenment studies are explored, including theories of nature, the picturesque, sensibility, the rise of nationalism, and colonialism.