The Garden Politic

“A superb contribution to American studies and more importantly, significantly advances and historicizes the material turn in the environmental humanities. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The Garden Politic offers and indispensable genealogy of race, settler colonialism, and the materiality of an always-contested vision of nature.” (Stephanie Foote, West Virginia University) “Presents an original and carefully historicized account of influential nineteenth-century authors’ generative engagements with the transnational circulation of plants, from seed exchanges and horticultural periodicals to botanical textbooks. Kuhn makes a compelling case for rethinking familiar forms like sentimentalism, domestic fiction, and abolitionist literature through the interpretive frameworks of botanical science and critical plant studies.” (Hsuan Hsu, author of The Smell of Risk: Environmental Disparities and Olfactory Aesthetics) “Kuhn’s elegantly crafted arguments represent a valuable addition to the burgeoning discipline of environmental humanities and aligns with the field of ecocriticism. It also reminds readers of the importance of imagination—works crafted within the humanities, and not just science or politics—to tackle the myriad global environmental challenges we face today.” (E. G. Harrington, Universities at Shady Grove) “The Garden Politic enables readers to reconsider well-known Dickinson poems and encourages a deep dive into new materialism, plants, and our connection to the natural environment.” (Dickinson and the Arts) “In The Garden Politic, out from NYU Press, Mary Kuhn views politics through the lens of 19th-century thinkers-cum-amateur gardeners including Emily Dickinson and Fredrick Douglass.” (Vanity Fair) “Kuhn’s elegantly crafted arguments represent a valuable addition to the burgeoning discipline of environmental humanities and aligns with the field of ecocriticism. It also reminds readers of the importance of imagination—works crafted within the humanities, and not just science or politics—to tackle the myriad global environmental challenges we face today.” - E. G. Harrington (CHOICE)

Mary Kuhn is Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Virginia.