The Dynamics of Agricultural Change

First published in 1982. Until the nineteenth-century the history of agriculture was the history of mankind but it has not perhaps received the wide attention that this importance justifies. In this study, the author reviews for the student of agricultural history successive attempts to describe and explain agricultural changes that are not specific to a limited area or a particular time. In a sense The Dynamics of Agricultural Change is a systematic historical geography of agriculture.

Some of the models the author explores have been developed within agricultural history; some, drawn from other disciplines, can be applied fruitfully to it. What is the relationship between population growth and agricultural development? Between environmental changes and those in agriculture? What was the effect of the industrial revolution? And has there been an agricultural revolution?

This book suggests to university students of economic history, historical geography and agriculture, a number of stimulating ways of interpreting and reinterpreting agricultural history.

Inhalt

List of Tables; List of Figures; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; Part One: Population and Agricultural Change; 2. The Adverse Consequences of Population Growth 3. The Positive Consequences of Population Growth; Part Two: Environment and Agricultural Change; 4. Price, Technology and Environment 5. Agricultural Systems as Ecosystems 6. Climatic Change and Farming History; Part Three: Industrialization and Agricultural Change; 7. The Nature of Peasant Societies 8. Structural Transformation and Turning Points 9. Industrialization, Demand and New Technologies 10. Transport and Agricultural Change; Part Four: The Pace of Change; 11. The Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations 12. The Definition and Measurement of Production and Productivity Growth in Agriculture 13. Agricultural Revolutions in Europe; Part Five: Institutions and Agricultural Change; 14. Class, Region and Revolution 15. On the Frontier 16. Conclusions; Notes and References; Index