Working the Land

Working the Land
Author: Nicola Verdon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017-09-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137316748

This book offers a new history of the farmworker in England from 1850 to the present day. It focuses on the paid worker, considering how the experiences of farm work – the work performed, wages earned and conditions of hiring – were shaped by gender, age and region. Combining data extracted from statistical sources with personal and autobiographical accounts, it places the individual farmworker back into a broader collective history. Beginning in the mid-Victorian era, when farmworkers were the most numerically significant occupational group in England, it considers the impact of economic, technological and social change on the scale and nature of farm work over the next hundred and fifty years, whilst also highlighting the continuation of some practices, including the use of casual and migrant workers to perform low-paid, seasonal work. Written in a lively and accessible manner, this book will appeal to those with an interest in rural history, gender history and modern British history.

The Non-representation of the Agricultural Labourers in 18th and 19th Century English Paintings

The Non-representation of the Agricultural Labourers in 18th and 19th Century English Paintings
Author: Penelope McElwee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Agricultural laborers
ISBN: 9781443887052

The life of the poor rural worker appears to have been one of unmitigated toil within an unequal society, a reality seldom endorsed in paintings of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The contemporary viewer wished to see visions of the idyllic golden landscapes of Merrie England peopled by happy contented workers. Members of the upper echelons of society, with their families all attired in fine silks and satins, look out at their audience from ornately framed canvases as individuals. Yet the rural poor, the rabble at the gates, the unseen workforce, who toiled at the behest of the Master, are virtually unknown. They have left few records. Enclosure came at a price. The Poorhouse beckoned. And still the agricultural labourer did virtually nothing, for most of the eighteenth century, to protest or rebel against the inequalities of his downtrodden existence.

Land, Labour and Agriculture, 1700-1920

Land, Labour and Agriculture, 1700-1920
Author: G. E. Mingay
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781852850425

The challenges and opportunities offered to British farming by the profound changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries make these years of outstanding interest to the agricultural historian. These original essays are presented to Gordon Mingay, the most distinguished historian of the Agricultural Revolution, and reflect his own interests in three central themes; landownership and landed society; rural labour; and agriculture both as a business and as a way of life.

The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain

The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain
Author: Roderick Floud
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2014-10-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107038464

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialization. Combining the expertise of more than thirty leading historians and economists, Volume 2 tracks the development of the British economy from late nineteenth-century global dominance to its early twenty-first century position as a mid-sized player in an integrated European economy. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and how to apply quantitative methods. The chapters re-examine issues of Britain's relative economic growth and decline over the 'long' twentieth century, setting the British experience within an international context, and benchmark its performance against that of its European and global competitors. Suggestions for further reading are also provided in each chapter, to help students engage thoroughly with the topics being discussed.

Agricultural Revolution in England

Agricultural Revolution in England
Author: Mark Overton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1996-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521568593

This book is the first available survey of English agriculture between 1500 and 1850. It combines new evidence with recent findings from the specialist literature, to argue that the agricultural revolution took place in the century after 1750. Taking a broad view of agrarian change, the author begins with a description of sixteenth-century farming and an analysis of its regional structure. He then argues that the agricultural revolution consisted of two related transformations. The first was a transformation in output and productivity brought about by a complex set of changes in farming practice. The second was a transformation of the agrarian economy and society, including a series of related developments in marketing, landholding, field systems, property rights, enclosure and social relations. Written specifically for students, this book will be invaluable to anyone studying English economic and social history, or the history of agriculture.