Explorations in Historical Geography Interpretative Essays

The debate about the purpose and practice of historical geography has often focused upon the progress to be made in the discipline through an adaptation to new problems, new methodologies, new techniques and new sources. Originally published in 1984, this volume of interpretative essays extends that debate by exploring in tentative fashion some basic methodological and substantive issues from essentially interdisciplinary standpoints. In any exploration, risks have to be accepted as an integral part of this enterprise. All of the contributors to this book take pleasure in one another's polemical company, and each essay explores a wide field while being soundly based in personal research. The hope is that some of this pleasure will be shared by those who critically read these essays.

Preface; 1. Reflections on the relations of historical geography and the Annales school of history Alan R. H. Baker; 2. Hegemony, class and power in late Georgian and early Victorian England: towards a cultural geography Mark Billinge; 3. Contours in crisis? Sketches for a geography of class struggle in the early Industrial Revolution in England Derek Gregory; 4. Agricultural revolution? Development of the agrarian economy in early modern England Mark Overton; 5. 'Modernization' and the corporate medieval village community in England: some sceptical reflections Richard M. Smith; 6. Some terrae incognitae in historical geography: an exploratory discussion Alan R. H. Baker and Derek Gregory; Notes to the text; Index.

The debate about the purpose and practice of historical geography has often focused upon the progress to be made in the discipline through an adaptation to new problems, methodologies, techniques and sources. This 1984 volume extends that debate by exploring methodological and substantive issues from essentially interdisciplinary standpoints.