England's Magnificent Gardens: How a Billion-Dollar Industry Transformed a Nation, from Charles II to Today

An altogether different kind of book on English gardens-the first of its kind-a look at the history of England's magnificent gardens as a history of Britain itself, from the seventeenth-century gardens of Charles II to those of Prince Charles today.

In this rich, revelatory history, Sir Roderick Floud, one of Britain's preeminent economic historians, writes that gardens have been created in Britain since Roman times but that their true growth began in the seventeenth century; by the eighte...