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William Cobbett (1763–1835) was at various times a soldier, a farmer, a radical activist and politician, and a journalist. At a time when the Industrial Revolution was dramatically changing the face of rural Britain, Cobbett was constantly concerned with improving the living conditions of the labouring classes. First published in 1821 as a series of pamphlets that sold over 30,000 copies, Cottage Economy demonstrates Cobbett's philosophy that the labourer should be taught industry, sobriety, frugality and 'the duty of using his best exertions for the rearing of his family'. With practical instructions, still relevant to those who seek to become self-reliant, Cobbett teaches the labouring classes of the nineteenth century the arts of brewing beer, keeping livestock, making bread, and 'other matters deemed useful in the conducting of the Affairs of a Labourer's Family.' Cottage Economy performs timelessly as the quintessential guide to self-sufficiency.

William Cobbett (1763–1835) was an English farmer and political reformer. He is best known for his Rural Rides (1830), also reissued in this series, which documents the life of nineteenth-century British agricultural workers and calls for social change. In 1816–7 Cobbett campaigned energetically for parliamentary reform, but when new anti-Radical legislation was passed he fled to North America and settled on a Long Island farm. This book, first published in 1818 and reissued here in its second edition (1819), contains Cobbett's account of his year in exile. It describes the climate, soil and crops he observed and the vegetables he grew, as well as the economics of farming in America. Part 2 discusses American customs, laws, and religion. Part 3 contains a description of the mid-West by Thomas Hulme, followed by Cobbett's rebuttal of Hulme's view of the 'Western Countries' as a desirable destination for emigrant British farmers.