Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror

by Peter Fowler

At a time early in the twenty-first century when the nature and future of British farming is very much a matter of public debate, this volume presents an up-to-date overview of the subject between one and two thousand years ago. Its importance lies in providing an authoritative and scholarly synthesis of a great deal of research--environmental, archaeological and historical --which cumulatively makes a significant shift in the understanding of Britain and its farming peoples, of the British landscape and of farming itself.

412 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2002

Reviews

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to understand a culture, fully, one needs to understand how that culture developed. The most basic way to gain this understanding, is to start at the beginning of that culture or society. Agriculture is one of our most basic endeavors. Without the ability to raise (or gather) food, our culture and society would have died out millennia ago.

The first five chapters of this book lays out the framework for the study of agrarian history. We are given a glimpse into the beginnings of this fairly young field of study. We are also presented with the various forms of evidence. In this case, mostly two: archaeological and historical (written records) for the development of agrarian technologies. From there, the author goes on to discuss the changes in landscape wrought by human civilization, the changes in farming technologies, the various crops and livestock, and how various land allotments developed by and into laws.

Overall, once I came to understand the how and why of his methods of presentation, I found this book to be not only very informative, but quite an enjoyable read as well.

Now to plunder his bibliography. :)