In the years before the Second World War agriculture in most European states was carried out on peasant or small family farms using technologies that relied mainly on organic inputs and local knowledg
Farmers held a pivotal role in the capitalist agriculture that emerged in England in the eighteenth century, yet they have attracted little attention from rural historians. Farmers made agriculture ha
It is now almost impossible to conceive of life in western Europe, either in the town or the country, without a reliable mains electricity supply. But it is worth remembering that for many of our gran
Focusing on the origins and development of the conceptualisation of the biological animal body as a ’technological’ resource, or indeed problem, within modern British agriculture, this book addresses
Why in the pre-industrial period were some settlements resilient and stable over the long term while other settlements were vulnerable to crisis? Indeed, what made certain human habitations more prone
"Early nineteenth-century Ireland witnessed widespread and prolonged rural unrest, as groups of labourers and smallholders formed secret societies demanding land reform, fair rents, the protection of
Observing Agriculture describes how Italian agricultural economists collected information about the economy of Italy, between the Giolittian and the Fascist era. The book carefully describes three mai