This is the second volume of conference proceedings for the handbook of the economic history of the Alpine region in the preindustrial era, which finally provides an extensive cross-regional synopsis of the history of the Alpine economy. Like Braudel’s classic on the Mediterranean region, renowned scholars examine the region and its people, the everyday lives of Alpine inhabitants, and commerce, migration, and communication in three volumes.

This is the second volume of conference proceedings for the handbook of the economic history of the Alpine region in the preindustrial era, which finally provides an extensive cross-regional synopsis of the history of the Alpine economy. Like Braudel's classic on the Mediterranean region, renowned scholars examine the region and its people, the everyday lives of Alpine inhabitants, and commerce, migration, and communication in three volumes.

This book provides case studies and general views of the main processes involved in the ecosystem shifts occurring in the high mountains and analyses the implications for nature conservation. Case studies from the Pyrenees are preponderant, with a comprehensive set of mountain ranges surrounded by highly populated lowland areas also being considered. The introductory and closing chapters will summarise the main challenges that nature conservation may face in mountain areas under the environmental shifting conditions. Further chapters put forward approaches from environmental geography, functional ecology, biogeography, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Organisms from microbes to large carnivores, and ecosystems from lakes to forest will be considered. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to researchers in mountain ecosystems, students and nature professionals. This book is open access under a CC BY license.

Since his first article in 1976 the American historian Robert P. Brenner has tried to come to terms with an issue first raised two centuries ago: how can we explain the differences in growth-patterns of North Western European countries in the transition from feudalism to capitalism. In a frontal attack on both the '(homeostatic) demographic' and 'commercialisation' models, Brenner traced the roots of the divergent evolutions back to rural and feudal 'social-property relations'. In the debate that immediately followed Brenner's first article, and in subsequent exchanges, the Low Countries were significantly neglected, although areas such as Flanders and Holland played a decisive role in the economic development of Europe. This was partly because of too few publications in international languages on the relevant Dutch rural history. This important book, edited by two of the most respected Dutch rural historians, and with contributions by several distinguished historians, seeks to fill this lacuna. It draws upon substantial research, and confronts the Brenner thesis with new results and hypotheses; and it contains a powerful and detailed response by Brenner himself.

The fossil fuel revolution is usually a tale of advances in energy production. Christopher Jones tells a tale of advances in energy access—canals, pipelines, wires delivering cheap, abundant power to cities at a distance from production sites. Between 1820 and 1930 these new transportation networks set the U.S. on a path to fossil fuel dependence.