America's Obsession With Growing the Perfect Lawn

By RICHARD BYRNE

Ted Steinberg, a professor of history at Case Western Reserve University

Americans spend an estimated $40-billion a year to keep their grass perfectly green and weed-free. Why? In American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn (W.W. Norton), Mr. Steinberg traces the history of the often futile metaphysical (and chemical) pursuit of what a recent Scotts lawn-and-garden advertisement called "an emerald kingdom of your own."

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America's Obsession With Growing the Perfect Lawn

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