Seeing trees A history of street trees in New York city and Berlin

Read this book if you are interested in the entanglement of trees and humans in two heavily urban cities, New York and Berlin. Dümpelmann (Harvard) documents the history of urban trees and how they are woven into their cities' social, cultural, and political life. The period from the late 19th to the early 21st century saw increased urbanization, and in the case of Berlin the reunification of two cities. Tensions between nativism and globalism existed then as now; these were influenced by science, technology, and economics. The rise of urban forestry and even the beginning of the new science of arboriculture is noted throughout this influential period. The conflict over ever-expanding land use by utility companies to the detriment of individual city residents rings familiar today as well. The excellent historical drawings of cityscape tree design are fascinating to study and supplement the text wonderfully. This book would be most interesting to those who practice urban design and urban forestry or to those studying it at a high level in a university or college. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Martin James Stone, Western Kentucky University