Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change Since 1800 [Paperback]

The enduring 'Town versus Country' debate lies at the root of modern British society. How far did the idealization of the countryside by artists and writers since the Industrial Revolution foster anti-urban, anti-industrial values? How have such values affected government policy, social structure and economic dynamism? Did post-war developments, in particular rural-urban commuting and environmentalist criticism of modern 'industrial' farming, undermine the traditional distinction between town and country, or are they themselves symptoms of the continuing allure of the rural idyll? This book will demonstrate the remarkable influence that attitudes to the countryside have had on the evolution of modern British life.Jeremy Burchardt is a lecturer in Rural History at Reading University.

Acknowledgements  vi
Introduction  1
1. Industrialization and Urbanization  13
2. Literature and the Countryside, c. 1800 to 1870  25
3. Radicalism and the Land, c. 1790 to c. 1850  35
4. Gardens, Allotments and Parks  46
5. Model Villages and Garden Cities  58
6. Literary Attitudes to the Countryside in the Later Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries  67
7. Land Reform After 1850  77
8. Preservation, 'Englishness' and the Rise of Planning, c. 1880-1939  89
9. The Economic Consequences of Rural Nostalgia  112
10. Rambling  121
11. The Organic Movement Before and During the Second World War  131
12. Rural Reconstruction Between the Wars  141
13. Rural Changes and the Legislative Framework, 1939 to 2000  150
14. Agriculture and the Environment  168
15. Recreation in the Countryside Since the Second World War  178
16. Intra-village Social Change and Attitudinal Conflict in the Twentieth Century  187
17. Town, Country and Politics at the End of the Twentieth Century  198
Notes  209
Select Bibliography  222
Index - 229