After the Ruins uses both official and unofficial records to explore a relatively ignored aspect of recent rural history: how the fields, farms, villages and market towns of Northern France were restored during the 1920s in the aftermath of the Great War. The book contains illustrations and many detailed maps and makes use of both official reports and unofficial critical commentaries.
is Professor of Geography, University College London where he has taught since 1967. He was Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences from 1995 to 2004. He is one of the foremost geographical authorities on modern France and on the European Union in general.
Preface
1. The war-torn zone
2. The intensity of devastation
3. The start of emergency action
4. The Service des Travaux de Première Urgence
5. Motoculture
6. The Office de Reconstitution Agricole
7. Achievements of the emergency phase
8. Principles of compensation, rules of reconstruction
9. Reconstruction cooperatives
10. Land and livelihood: continuity and change
11. Toward a balance sheet
Index
“Hugh Clout has written a scholarly, dense text on an engrossing topic that will be of interest to all concerned with reconstruction after the First World War, and indeed interested in the still neglected interwar period of European historical geography.” –Journal of Economic and Social Geography
The story told by Clout is full of detail, yet never loses sight of the main themes. It is the product of considerable research in national and departemental archives, and fills a notable hole in the history of rural France. It should be added that the quality of both print and illustrations is excellent, and the University of Exeter Press are to be congrlc-
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