The Medieval English Landscape, 1000-1540 1st Edition by Graeme J. White (PDF)

Description

The landscape of medieval England was the product of a multitude of hands. While the power to shape the landscape inevitably lay with the Crown, the nobility and the religious houses, this study also highlights the contribution of the peasantry in the layout of rural settlements and ridge-and-furrow field works, and the funding of parish churches by ordinary townsfolk. The importance of population trends is emphasised as a major factor in shaping the medieval landscape: the rising curve of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries imposing growing pressures on resources, and the devastating impact of the Black Death leading to radical decline in the fourteenth century. Opening with a broad-ranging analysis of political and economic trends in medieval England, the book progresses thematically to assess the impact of farming, rural settlement, towns, the Church, and fortification using many original case studies. The concluding chapter charts the end of the medieval landscape with the dissolution of the monasteries, the replacement of castles by country houses, the ongoing enclosure of fields, and the growth of towns.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review A clear account of what students of the subject have discovered, analysed, written and disagreed about in the last few years . . . the book is a nice record of the state of medieval landscape history in 2012 and thus of value as an introductory work . . . Recommended reading.The Local HistorianDiscussion of fieldscapes, cultivation strips, open fields and other arrangements quickly opens up what for this reader is the lasting impression from the book overall, that is the great diversity of arrangements and practice across the country. Such is the wealth of detailed place-based and thematic studies now available and which the author brings into play (the twenty-three-page bibliography is a fine reference for anyone wishing to follow up some case studies), that broad generalising models of previous eras of scholarship are well superseded and the significance of immediate and local circumstances well recognised.Landscape HistoryThis book is a clearly written and highly accessible survey of the English medieval landscape which covers a range of topics including farming practices, settlement patterns, the development of towns and the role of religion … Throughout the book economic history is a useful reference point, and this is a factor in the use of the landscape and a measure of the success of farming and other activities. This book is accessibly and engagingly written, thoroughly referenced with an extensive bibliography, and forms an excellent gateway into the subject.Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol. 163 About the Author Graeme J. White is Professor of History at the University of Chester, UK. His research interests include the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry II, and rural settlement and field systems. His publications include Restoration and Reform 1153-1165.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐An excellent summary – I wish it had been around when I was teaching the geography of medieval England

⭐This book is a complete and utter shambles. It covers a wide variety of features across a 540 year period (1000-1540) but does not break sections into chronology. While it does try to create sections which designate separate features (such as the ‘Landscape of Fortification’, ‘Landscape of Religion’ etc.), it fails to condense the information in any productive manner. If a chronological approach was attempted, then the importance of the Conquest (for example) could be highlighted, rather than leaving the reader attempting to guess at when such changes occurred (for the author has a tendency to jump around in date and topic, without headings).The book is very sparse in regards to information, and incredibly narrative – the author appears to enjoy writing all that he can fit on the foundation and story of the Cistercians, without actually telling us how their foundation in England following the Conquest actually changed the landscape. It is barely academic in nature, more representing a garbled mess of narrative.This book is overall a very difficult book to use in an academic context. As a 2nd year history student, I found it difficult to use effectively for essays and revision, as without clear distinctions in topic and date within chapters it is difficult to find the explicit detail you need. This book is probably more suited to a non-academic reader, being more along the lines of a medieval tourism guide than a proper peer-reviewed monograph. Thus I cannot recommend it as an academic book for those studying landscape history.

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