| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 209 words from this article are provided below; about 551 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Michael Kammen. A Time to Every Purpose: The Four Seasons in American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2004. Pp. 336. $39.95.

One of the great pleasures of Michael Kammen's new book are the forty-eight color plates of paintings, vases, prints, and other media representing seasons of the year. The richly reproduced works of art range from Roman mosaics and medieval tapestry to paintings by Jasper Cropsey, Marsden Hartley, Paul Cadmus, and Felix de la Concha and prints by Jennifer Bartlett and Will Barnet. Even before one starts reading, the sumptuous plates are an invitation to reflect on the theme and variations of seasons as they have been handled in different eras. This visual narrative is matched by a remarkable catalog of American writers who over the course of two centuries have written about seasons, both literally as observers of the natural world and figuratively as poets developing metaphors for the cycles of life and creativity. Kammen is at his most eloquent in appreciating the work of writers like Henry David Thoreau or Wallace Stevens, who integrate a powerful sense of the seasonality of nature with an equally profound sense of seasons in human life and work.

. . .

There are about 551 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.