This is the first book to study in detail the making of the rural English landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For decades historians have debated the nature, timing and even the existence of the 'agricultural revolution'. This book approaches the debate from a new direction: that of landscape archaeology. It argues that there was not one 'agricultural revolution' but many. The enclosure of open fields and the reclamation of heath and downland - spearheaded by aristocratic improvers and large capitalist farmers - mesmerised contemporaries. But most enclosures had little to do with the improvement of arable farming, large landowners played a minor role and the really revolutionary changes took place elsewhere, in parts of England which were not characterised by large estates, and were the work of tenant farmers rather than landowners.

About the Author
Tom Williamson is lecturer in landscape history at the University of East Anglia and has written widely on agricultural history, landscape archaeology and the history of garden design.

Reviews
... the works of an author who is a noted specialist in his field.
Landscapes, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring

... well-produced and inviting.
Landscapes, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring

This book offers a very wide-ranging and authoritative overview of the changes in rural England over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Journal of Southern History and Society

... he goes well beyond any narrow academic boundaries in his coverage.
Journal of Southern History and Society

... one of the most important contributions of this book is the stress which Williamson lays on the regional variations which occurred.
Journal of Southern History and Society

What is presented here is a well-balanced coverage of all the country. He argues persuasively for a series of agricultural revolutions.
Journal of Southern History and Society

Williamson marshals a wide range of evidence and presents it to good effect.
Journal of Southern History and Society

This is a thoughtful and well-written book, which I can recommend wholeheartedly both to the amateur historian seeking background knowledge for a local study and to the professional looking for an authoritative survey of the existing literature. ... All will find stimulation in this book, not least from Williamson's own views and interpretations even if, at times, they may wish to challenge them.
Journal of Southern History and Society

This is a thought-provoking book, pleasing but teasing ... [a] stimulating book.
Rural History, Vol. 14, No. 2

Williamson is well known for his landscape histories... In The Transformation of Rural England he not only makes good use of his own primary research, but he includes an impressive variety of secondary sources. This makes for a superior reference work, introduction to the topic, and scholarly contribution.... Few historians could pull off a comprehensive survey of he agricultural revolution in England, and Tom Williamson is one of them.
Matt Osborn



Book Information
ISBN 9780859896344
Author Tom Williamson
Format Paperback
Page Count 210
Imprint University of Exeter Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press