Book excerpt: Continuing his exploration of popular American culture, Schroeder investigates how the front yard came to be, with its clipped lawns, shaped bushes, conventional flowers, noble shade trees, sidewalk frames, and other elements denoting respectability. He notes that it came into being between 1870 and 1890, and has persisted against the criticism, indeed the ridicule, of landscape designers, architects, urban planners, and other professionals and aesthetes. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR