Alternative Agriculture in Europe (sixteenth-twentieth centuries)
Edited by Gerard Beaur
The treatment of long-term agricultural transformation remains a lively topic for historians. Much debate arose when agricultural development patterns were discovered that did without a dominant, production-oriented cereal crop, even when it was accompanied by livestock farming. Joan Thirsk hoped to conclude this debate by putting forward the hypothesis that such “alternative agriculture” was the farmers’ way of responding to the difficulties caused by periods of low agricultural prices. This theory stirred up controversy and arguments both for and against. The contributions to this volume take this hypothesis seriously and attempt to assess its validity. Examining a large number of “alternative agricultures” over the long term, from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, they discuss the issues encountered in tracing the links between the spread of alternative crops, such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, and industrial crops, and the general economic environment, across a vast swathe of territory stretching from Flanders to Spain and from France, through Italy and Switzerland, as far as Russia.
The treatment of long-term agricultural transformation remains a lively topic for historians. Much debate arose when agricultural development patterns were discovered that did without a dominant, production-oriented cereal crop, even when it was accompanied by livestock farming. Joan Thirsk hoped to conclude this debate by putting forward the hypothesis that such “alternative agriculture” was the farmers’ way of responding to the difficulties caused by periods of low agricultural prices. This theory stirred up controversy and arguments both for and against. The contributions to this volume take this hypothesis seriously and attempt to assess its validity. Examining a large number of “alternative agricultures” over the long term, from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, they discuss the issues encountered in tracing the links between the spread of alternative crops, such as fruits and vegetables, flowers, and industrial crops, and the general economic environment, across a vast swathe of territory stretching from Flanders to Spain and from France, through Italy and Switzerland, as far as Russia.
- Edited by Gerard Beaur
Other Titles in this Series
From Breeding & Feeding to Medicalization
Animal farming, veterinarization and consumers in the 20th c. Western Europe
Volume 17
Agriculture in the Age of Fascism
Authoritarian Technocracy and rural modernization, 1922-1945
Volume 13
Contexts of Property in Europe
The Social Embeddedness of Property Rights in Land in Historical Perspective
Volume 5
Inheritance Practices, Marriage Strategies and Household Formation in European Rural Societies
Volume 7
The Golden Age of State Enquiries
Rural Enquiries in the Nineteenth Century. From Fact Gathering to Political Instrument
Volume 14
Agrosystems and Labour Relations in European Rural Societies
(Middle Ages-Twentieth Century)
Volume 3
Rural Societies and Environments at Risk
Ecology, Property Rights and Social Organisation in Fragile Areas (Middle Ages-Twentieth Century)
Volume 9
Property Rights, Land Markets and Economic Growth in the European Countryside (13th-20th Centuries)
Volume 1
The Formation of Agricultural Governance
The Interplay between State and Civil Society in European Agriculture, 1870-1940
Volume 19
Integration through Subordination
The politics of Agricultural Modernisation in Industrial Europe
Volume 8
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