An Environmental History of Wildlife in England, 1650-1950

While few detailed surveys of fauna or flora exist in England from the period before the nineteenth century, it is possible to combine the evidence of historical sources (ranging from game books, diaries, churchwardens' accounts and even folk songs) and our wider knowledge of past land use and landscape, with contemporary analyses made by modern natural scientists, in order to model the situation at various times and places in the more remote past. This timely volume encompasses both rural and urban environments from 1650 to the mid-twentieth century, drawing on a wide variety of social, historical and ecological sources. It examines the impact of social and economic organisation on the English landscape, biodiversity, the agricultural revolution, landed estates, the coming of large-scale industry and the growth of towns and suburbs. It also develops an original perspective on the complexity and ambiguity of manimal relationships in this post-medieval period.

Tom Williamson is Professor of History at the University of East Anglia, UK. His many publications include The Transformation of Rural England (2002) and Shaping Medieval Landscapes: Settlement, Society, Environment (2003).