Reviews
John Fraser Hart's study of the ever-changing rural landscape is a competent and richly illustrated account of human endeavour, charting patterns of land use across time and space, from the small cross-ploughed fields of Neolithic Britain to the vast wheat-producing plains of modern-day America. It reveals how history is continuously incorporated into the landscape.
Hart has a keen eye, a facile pen, and a love for conversation with people who live and work in such places. The result is an admirable and wide-ranging book.
A wonderful record to have between two covers... well produced with photographs of exceptional clarity.
This layperson's guide to the rural landscape, written by one of the world's foremost experts, treats the contemporary rural landscape not as an artifact of the past but rather as a continuing product of human impacts on nature. John Fraser Hart makes clear how history gets reincorporated continuously as each generation makes changes in the landscape to suit its own needs.
No one knows our rural landscapes better than John Fraser Hart and no one has written as clearly and tellingly about them. He tells us what all those visible patterns and structures really mean in terms of life and work and the larger forces that impinge upon them. This is a richly illustrated and informative work about our constantly changing countryside.
Book Details
Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Understanding Landscapes
Part I: Rocks
Chapter 2. The Surface of the Land
Chapter 3. Landscapes of Mining
Part II: Plants
Chapter 4. Plant Life
Chapter 5. The Use of
Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Understanding Landscapes
Part I: Rocks
Chapter 2. The Surface of the Land
Chapter 3. Landscapes of Mining
Part II: Plants
Chapter 4. Plant Life
Chapter 5. The Use of Forests
Chapter 6. Cropping Systems
Part III: Land Division
Chapter 7. Land Division in Britain
Chapter 8. Land Division in America
Part IV: Farm Structures
Chapter 9. Fences and Fields
Chapter 10. Barns
Chapter 11. Other Farm Structures
Chapter 12. Farm Size and Farm Tenure
Part IV: Small Towns and the Urban Edge
Chapter 13. Small Towns
Chapter 14. The Long Shadow of the City
Chapter 15. Recreation
Epilogue: The Changing Countryside
Further Reading
Index