Alternative Agriculture: A History - From the Black Death to the Present Day (Hardcover)

It is possible to see the countryside around us changing as the search for an alternative agriculture becomes more urgent throughout Europe and America. However, this is not the first time that these changes have occurred: agriculture has, from time to time, undergone closely similar experiences since the mid-fourteenth century. In this study, Dr Thirsk illuminates the parallels between the circumstances surrounding agricultural developments in three other historical periods (1350-1500, 1650-1750, and 1879-1939), and explains why the same key factors are once again coming to prominence in today's society, and the consequences of acknowledging this recurrence. This work is not only a history of alternative agriculture, but also an alternative history of agriculture. Its fresh perspective and European context should alert readers to the necessity of ensuring that political change is not made in a historical vacuum, and offers valuable interpretations of the past as essential lessons for the present and the future. This book is intended for students of economic and social history, English agricultural history, and English historical geography; students of agriculture, environmental pl