In this book, first published in 1980, the author draws a vivid picture of what country life was like for the vast majority of English villagers – agricultural labourers, craftsmen and small farmers – during a period of rapid agricultural development. This study analyses the influence of the enclosure movement on farming methods and on the structure of village life, and examines the devastating effects of the Napoleonic wars on English society. The Rural World is based on a wide range of sources, including parliamentary papers, contemporary letters, diaries and account books, and official records such as those relating to the Poor Law and the courts. It provides a fascinating overview of all aspects of rural life – from employment to home conditions, education, charity, crime, the role of religion and the influence of politics – during a critical period in English history.

The range of women's work and its contribution to the family economy studied here for the first time. Despite the growth of women's history and rural social history in the past thirty years, the work performed by women who lived in the nineteenth-century English countryside is still an under-researched issue. Verdon directly addresses this gap in the historiography, placing the rural female labourer centre stage for the first time. The involvement of women in the rural labour market as farm servants, as day labourers in agriculture, and as domestic workers, are all examined using a wide range of printed and unpublished sources from across England. The roles village women performed in the informal rural economy (household labour, gathering resources and exploiting systems of barterand exchange) are also assessed. Changes in women's economic opportunities are explored, alongside the implications of region, age, marital status, number of children in the family and local custom; women's economic contribution to the rural labouring household is established as a critical part of family subsistence, despite criticism of such work and the rise in male wages after 1850. NICOLA VERDON is a Research Fellow in the Rural History Centre, University of Reading.

The Routledge History of Rural America charts the course of rural life in the United States, raising questions about what makes a place rural and how rural places have shaped the history of the nation. Bringing together leading scholars to analyze a wide array of themes in rural history and culture, this text is a state-of-the-art resource for students, scholars, and educators at all levels. This Routledge History provides a regional context for understanding change in rural communities across America and examines a number of areas where the history of rural people has deviated from the American mainstream. Readers will come away with an enhanced understanding of the interplay between urban and rural areas, a knowledge of the regional differences within the rural United States, and an awareness of the importance of agriculture and rural life to American society. The book is divided into four main sections: regions of rural America, rural lives in context, change and development, and resources for scholars and teachers. Examining the essays on the regions of rural America, readers can discover what makes New England different from the South, and why the Midwest and Mountain West are quite different places. The chapters on rural lives provide an entrée into the social and cultural history of rural peoples – women, children and men – as well as a description of some of the forces shaping rural communities, such as immigration, race and religious difference. Chapters on change and development examine the forces molding the countryside, such as rural-urban tensions, technological change and increasing globalization. The final section will help scholars and educators integrate rural history into their research, writing, and classrooms. By breaking the field of rural history into so many pieces, this volume adds depth and complexity to the history of the United States, shedding light on an understudied aspect of the American mythology and beliefs about the American dream.

DIVBruegel shows how the development of a market economy created historical change in a parochial community./div

Centuries of Child Labour argues that some of the conventional wisdom on child labour can be qualified, and even questioned, if we turn from the experiences of leading 19th century countries, such as Britain and France, to economically and politically weaker countries of Northern Europe. Taking a long term perspective, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, Marjatta Rahikainen conveys a richer sense of child labour, by comparing the experiences of the Northern European (Scandinavian) periphery to the paradigmatic cases of Britain and France.

Taking account of broader patterns of growth, the focus of this book is Methodism in the British Isles. Hempton discusses why Methodism, the most important religious movement in the English-speaking world in the 18th and 19th centuries, grew when and where it did and what was the nature of the Methodist experience for those who embraced it. He also explores the themes of law, politics and gender which lie at the heart of Methodist influence on individuals, communities and social structures.