Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List of Contributors vii
Introduction: Farming and the Countryside 1
Jeremy Burchardt
Suggested Further Reading 17
1. Land Use and Leisure: Leslie Scott and the 19
Contested Countryside
Simon Miller
2. An Organic Countryside: Agriculture for 39
Body, Soul and Nation
Philip Conford
3. Agriculture's Role Within the UK 61
Sir John Marsh
4. Agricultural Incomes: A Damaging History of 81
Disjunction Between Policy Concern and Evidence
Berkeley Hill
5. Murrains to Mad Cows: A Very Short History 117
Of Governments, People and Animal Diseases
Paul Brassley
6. 'Listen to Us!': Country Sports and the 145
Mobilization of a Marginalized Constituency
Graham Cox
7. From Agricultural Poverty to Social Exclusion: 167
Shifting Approaches to Rural Poverty in England
Paul Milbourne
8. 'The Land of Lost Content': Ruralism, 187
Englishness and Historical Change in the
Countryside, 1890-1990 00
Alun Howkins
Index 203

Promotional Information

Life in rural Britain has changed beyond recognition since the beginning of the 20th century. This title examines the historical background of the main controversies of contemporary rural life. It explores key elements of rural life, including the varying responses to animal disease from Biblical times to the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth.

About the Author

Jeremy Burchardt is a Lecturer in Rural History at Reading University. His previous publications include Paradise Lost (I.B.Tauris) and The Allotment Movement in England. Philip Conford is a leading authority on the history of organic movement in Britain and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History, University of Reading.