H. VANHAVERBEKE, F. MARTENS, and M. WAELKENS
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264027
- eISBN:
- 9780191734908
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264027.003.0024
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled ...
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Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled with the results from archaeological excavations, soundings and interdisciplinary research, a reconstruction can be made of what happened during the last centuries of the city's existence. Framing the observed changes in a larger chronological perspective, another view emerges on the fate of the city and its countryside in Late Antiquity. Terms such as ‘decline’, ‘fall’ and ‘transformation’ relate to cities and do not adequately describe contemporary evolution in the countryside. An urgent call for rural surveys is advocated to avoid the perpetuation of the intellectual trap created by this urban-centred approach.Less
Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled with the results from archaeological excavations, soundings and interdisciplinary research, a reconstruction can be made of what happened during the last centuries of the city's existence. Framing the observed changes in a larger chronological perspective, another view emerges on the fate of the city and its countryside in Late Antiquity. Terms such as ‘decline’, ‘fall’ and ‘transformation’ relate to cities and do not adequately describe contemporary evolution in the countryside. An urgent call for rural surveys is advocated to avoid the perpetuation of the intellectual trap created by this urban-centred approach.
Alfonso Moreno
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199228409
- eISBN:
- 9780191711312
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228409.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter presents a case study of the agriculture and economy of the large suburban deme Euonymon. Archaeological evidence from this deme and its neighbors on the southern Athenian plain and the ...
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This chapter presents a case study of the agriculture and economy of the large suburban deme Euonymon. Archaeological evidence from this deme and its neighbors on the southern Athenian plain and the coastal strip of Attica west of Hymettos is examined, particularly aerial photography showing the systematic use of terracing and roads. The deme's demography and economy are examined in the context of the pattern of settlement in the countryside, and the coordinated efforts of neighboring communities. It is argued that the intensive cultivation of cash crops (especially olives), the economic and social interdependence of neighbouring Attic demes, and their reliance on the urban market of Athens, were the basis of the economy of the Athenian countryside in the Classical period. The division sometimes seen by modern scholars between urban and rural life in Athens is therefore fundamentally incorrect.Less
This chapter presents a case study of the agriculture and economy of the large suburban deme Euonymon. Archaeological evidence from this deme and its neighbors on the southern Athenian plain and the coastal strip of Attica west of Hymettos is examined, particularly aerial photography showing the systematic use of terracing and roads. The deme's demography and economy are examined in the context of the pattern of settlement in the countryside, and the coordinated efforts of neighboring communities. It is argued that the intensive cultivation of cash crops (especially olives), the economic and social interdependence of neighbouring Attic demes, and their reliance on the urban market of Athens, were the basis of the economy of the Athenian countryside in the Classical period. The division sometimes seen by modern scholars between urban and rural life in Athens is therefore fundamentally incorrect.
A. G. POULTER
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264027
- eISBN:
- 9780191734908
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264027.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to ...
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After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to the end of the sixth century. The incentive for the subsequent programme, ‘The Transition to Late Antiquity’, was the discovery that the city was replaced by a very different Nicopolis, both in layout and economy, during the fifth century. A site-specific survey method was developed to explore the countryside. The survey discovered that the Roman villa economy collapsed late in the fourth century. The excavations on the site of the late Roman fort at Dichin provided an unexpected but invaluable insight into the regional economy and military situation on the lower Danube in the fifth and sixth centuries. The results of both these two research projects are summarized and an explanation proposed as to how and why there was such a radical break between the Roman Empire and its early Byzantine successor on the lower Danube.Less
After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to the end of the sixth century. The incentive for the subsequent programme, ‘The Transition to Late Antiquity’, was the discovery that the city was replaced by a very different Nicopolis, both in layout and economy, during the fifth century. A site-specific survey method was developed to explore the countryside. The survey discovered that the Roman villa economy collapsed late in the fourth century. The excavations on the site of the late Roman fort at Dichin provided an unexpected but invaluable insight into the regional economy and military situation on the lower Danube in the fifth and sixth centuries. The results of both these two research projects are summarized and an explanation proposed as to how and why there was such a radical break between the Roman Empire and its early Byzantine successor on the lower Danube.
G. J. Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199283507
- eISBN:
- 9780191712722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283507.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter deals with the impact of enemy incursions in Attica and attempts made by the Athenians to remove enemy forces installed in the polis. Epigraphical evidence from this period shows a ...
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This chapter deals with the impact of enemy incursions in Attica and attempts made by the Athenians to remove enemy forces installed in the polis. Epigraphical evidence from this period shows a consistent concern for the defence of the countryside, and in particular for the successful harvest of crops.Less
This chapter deals with the impact of enemy incursions in Attica and attempts made by the Athenians to remove enemy forces installed in the polis. Epigraphical evidence from this period shows a consistent concern for the defence of the countryside, and in particular for the successful harvest of crops.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of ...
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This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.Less
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.
Siân Reynolds
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199560424
- eISBN:
- 9780191741814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560424.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter, based on copious correspondence, reconstructs the Rolands’ private life in Amiens (1781–1784) and the Beaujolais, from 1784: everyday routines, diet, illnesses and remedies, ...
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This chapter, based on copious correspondence, reconstructs the Rolands’ private life in Amiens (1781–1784) and the Beaujolais, from 1784: everyday routines, diet, illnesses and remedies, occupations, and gradual responsibility for the farm at Le Clos la Platière, combining rural life with Roland's inspection duties. Paris seems a long way off and, like Candide, the couple seems likely to settle for cultivating their garden.Less
This chapter, based on copious correspondence, reconstructs the Rolands’ private life in Amiens (1781–1784) and the Beaujolais, from 1784: everyday routines, diet, illnesses and remedies, occupations, and gradual responsibility for the farm at Le Clos la Platière, combining rural life with Roland's inspection duties. Paris seems a long way off and, like Candide, the couple seems likely to settle for cultivating their garden.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205708
- eISBN:
- 9780191676758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205708.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, British and Irish Early Modern History
The expectation that resident landowners would entertain tenants and guests from the neighbourhood continued right up until the later nineteenth century, when the decline of Britain's agriculture and ...
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The expectation that resident landowners would entertain tenants and guests from the neighbourhood continued right up until the later nineteenth century, when the decline of Britain's agriculture and increasing rural depopulation put paid to the old social and economic relationships of the countryside. For some time before then, however, the scale of entertainment had probably been decreasing with the diminishing size of gentry households, and the increasing commercialization of labour services: a story much better illustrated in the case of harvest suppers. Echoes of the traditional festive obligations are occasionally found in the mid-nineteenth century, such as the case of the farmer in 1847 who made sure to entertain all his labourers ‘as usual’ to a dinner of goose and plum pudding on Christmas Day with plenty of cider. The folklore collections are much more useful for certain related practices. One was the development, and public endorsement, of early winter celebrations related to particular trades and crafts.Less
The expectation that resident landowners would entertain tenants and guests from the neighbourhood continued right up until the later nineteenth century, when the decline of Britain's agriculture and increasing rural depopulation put paid to the old social and economic relationships of the countryside. For some time before then, however, the scale of entertainment had probably been decreasing with the diminishing size of gentry households, and the increasing commercialization of labour services: a story much better illustrated in the case of harvest suppers. Echoes of the traditional festive obligations are occasionally found in the mid-nineteenth century, such as the case of the farmer in 1847 who made sure to entertain all his labourers ‘as usual’ to a dinner of goose and plum pudding on Christmas Day with plenty of cider. The folklore collections are much more useful for certain related practices. One was the development, and public endorsement, of early winter celebrations related to particular trades and crafts.
Sarah Neal and Julian Agyeman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861347961
- eISBN:
- 9781447303916
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861347961.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This book explores issues of ethnicity, identity, and radicalised exclusion in rural Britain. It questions what the countryside ‘is’, problematises who is seen as belonging to rural spaces, and ...
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This book explores issues of ethnicity, identity, and radicalised exclusion in rural Britain. It questions what the countryside ‘is’, problematises who is seen as belonging to rural spaces, and argues for the recognition of a rural multiculture. The book brings together the latest research findings to provide an account of current theory, policy, and practice. Using interdisciplinary frameworks and new empirical data, it provides a critical and comprehensive account of the shifting, contested connections between rurality, national identity, and ethnicity. It discusses the relationships between ethnicity, exclusion, policy, practice, and research in a range of rural settings – from the experiences of Gypsy Traveller children in schools to attempts to encourage black and minority ethnic visitors to National Parks, and contributes towards establishing the ‘rural–ethnicity–nation’ relationship as a key consideration on political and policy agendas.Less
This book explores issues of ethnicity, identity, and radicalised exclusion in rural Britain. It questions what the countryside ‘is’, problematises who is seen as belonging to rural spaces, and argues for the recognition of a rural multiculture. The book brings together the latest research findings to provide an account of current theory, policy, and practice. Using interdisciplinary frameworks and new empirical data, it provides a critical and comprehensive account of the shifting, contested connections between rurality, national identity, and ethnicity. It discusses the relationships between ethnicity, exclusion, policy, practice, and research in a range of rural settings – from the experiences of Gypsy Traveller children in schools to attempts to encourage black and minority ethnic visitors to National Parks, and contributes towards establishing the ‘rural–ethnicity–nation’ relationship as a key consideration on political and policy agendas.
Madhu Satsangi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847423856
- eISBN:
- 9781447303985
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847423856.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
For the past century, governments have been compelled, time and again, to return to the search for solutions to the housing and economic challenges posed by a restructuring countryside. This book is ...
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For the past century, governments have been compelled, time and again, to return to the search for solutions to the housing and economic challenges posed by a restructuring countryside. This book is an analysis of the complexity of housing and development tensions in the rural areas of England, Wales and Scotland. It analyses a range of topics from attitudes to rural development, economic change, land use, planning and counter-urbanisation, through retirement and ageing, leisure consumption, lifestyle shifts and homelessness, to public and private house building, private and public renting and community initiatives. Across this spectrum of concerns, it attempts to isolate the fundamental tensions that give the rural housing question an intractable quality.Less
For the past century, governments have been compelled, time and again, to return to the search for solutions to the housing and economic challenges posed by a restructuring countryside. This book is an analysis of the complexity of housing and development tensions in the rural areas of England, Wales and Scotland. It analyses a range of topics from attitudes to rural development, economic change, land use, planning and counter-urbanisation, through retirement and ageing, leisure consumption, lifestyle shifts and homelessness, to public and private house building, private and public renting and community initiatives. Across this spectrum of concerns, it attempts to isolate the fundamental tensions that give the rural housing question an intractable quality.
Joan Thirsk
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208136
- eISBN:
- 9780191677922
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208136.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape ...
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People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape forever. However, that countryside may have looked both more and less familiar than we imagine. Take today's startling yellow fields of rapeseed, seemingly more suited to the landscape of Van Gogh than Constable. They were, in fact, thoroughly familiar to fieldworkers in 17th-century England. At the same time, some features that would have gone unremarked in the past now seem like oddities. In the 15th century, rabbit warrens were specially guarded to rear rabbits as a luxury food for rich men's tables; whilst houses had moats not only to defend them, but to provide a source of fresh fish. In the 1500s Catherine of Aragon introduced the concept of a fresh salad to the court of Henry VIII; and in the 1600s, artichoke gardens became a fashion of the gentry in their hope of producing more male heirs. The common tomato, suspected of being poisonous in 1837, was transformed into a household vegetable by the end of the 19th century, thanks to cheaper glass-making methods and the resulting increase in glasshouses. In addition to these images of past lives, the author reveals how the forces that drive our current interest in alternative forms of agriculture — a glut of meat and cereal crops, changing dietary habits, the needs of medicine — have striking parallels with earlier periods in our history.Less
People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape forever. However, that countryside may have looked both more and less familiar than we imagine. Take today's startling yellow fields of rapeseed, seemingly more suited to the landscape of Van Gogh than Constable. They were, in fact, thoroughly familiar to fieldworkers in 17th-century England. At the same time, some features that would have gone unremarked in the past now seem like oddities. In the 15th century, rabbit warrens were specially guarded to rear rabbits as a luxury food for rich men's tables; whilst houses had moats not only to defend them, but to provide a source of fresh fish. In the 1500s Catherine of Aragon introduced the concept of a fresh salad to the court of Henry VIII; and in the 1600s, artichoke gardens became a fashion of the gentry in their hope of producing more male heirs. The common tomato, suspected of being poisonous in 1837, was transformed into a household vegetable by the end of the 19th century, thanks to cheaper glass-making methods and the resulting increase in glasshouses. In addition to these images of past lives, the author reveals how the forces that drive our current interest in alternative forms of agriculture — a glut of meat and cereal crops, changing dietary habits, the needs of medicine — have striking parallels with earlier periods in our history.
David Tompkins
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199759392
- eISBN:
- 9780199918911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759392.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter provides a fresh perspective on the musical world of Stalinist East Germany, and argues that the vibrant soundscape was marked by the hopes and desires of both composers and the audience ...
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This chapter provides a fresh perspective on the musical world of Stalinist East Germany, and argues that the vibrant soundscape was marked by the hopes and desires of both composers and the audience as well as by directives from cultural officials. Beginning with a brief discussion of expectations for musical compositions under Socialist Realism, it explores the rich array of music festivals in the post-war period, from prominent events in Berlin to those organized in smaller towns and the countryside. Concluding with an examination of Estradenkonzerte, or stage revues, the chapter asserts that the soundscape of the GDR was a negotiated project that helped to create a new socialist identity.Less
This chapter provides a fresh perspective on the musical world of Stalinist East Germany, and argues that the vibrant soundscape was marked by the hopes and desires of both composers and the audience as well as by directives from cultural officials. Beginning with a brief discussion of expectations for musical compositions under Socialist Realism, it explores the rich array of music festivals in the post-war period, from prominent events in Berlin to those organized in smaller towns and the countryside. Concluding with an examination of Estradenkonzerte, or stage revues, the chapter asserts that the soundscape of the GDR was a negotiated project that helped to create a new socialist identity.
Sheila Skaff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325628
- eISBN:
- 9781800342378
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325628.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film Ida was exceptionally warmly received in the United States, culminating in the Academy Award for Film Not in the English Language, but it was not without controversy. ...
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Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film Ida was exceptionally warmly received in the United States, culminating in the Academy Award for Film Not in the English Language, but it was not without controversy. This book's introduction to the film explains the historical setting, including the violence that took place in the Polish countryside during World War II and was not exposed for sixty years, and provides political and cultural analysis to aid the reader in understanding the film's setting and narrative. The book also touches on the influence of the film on current events in Poland, where censorship of it by an increasingly nationalist government has polarized the country. It also situates Ida within the contexts of Polish and world film history. Scene-by-scene analysis is accompanied in each chapter by background information that gives context to the aesthetic and narrative choices made by the director.Less
Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film Ida was exceptionally warmly received in the United States, culminating in the Academy Award for Film Not in the English Language, but it was not without controversy. This book's introduction to the film explains the historical setting, including the violence that took place in the Polish countryside during World War II and was not exposed for sixty years, and provides political and cultural analysis to aid the reader in understanding the film's setting and narrative. The book also touches on the influence of the film on current events in Poland, where censorship of it by an increasingly nationalist government has polarized the country. It also situates Ida within the contexts of Polish and world film history. Scene-by-scene analysis is accompanied in each chapter by background information that gives context to the aesthetic and narrative choices made by the director.
Ken Hiltner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449406
- eISBN:
- 9780801460760
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449406.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Pastoral was one of the most popular literary forms of early modern England. Inspired by classical and Italian Renaissance antecedents, writers from Ben Jonson to John Beaumont and Abraham Cowley ...
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Pastoral was one of the most popular literary forms of early modern England. Inspired by classical and Italian Renaissance antecedents, writers from Ben Jonson to John Beaumont and Abraham Cowley wrote in idealized terms about the English countryside. It is often argued that the Renaissance pastoral was a highly figurative mode of writing that had more to do with culture and politics than with the actual countryside of England. For decades now literary criticism has had it that in pastoral verse, hills and crags and moors were extolled for their metaphoric worth, rather than for their own qualities. This book takes a fresh look at pastoral, offering an environmentally minded reading that reconnects the poems with literal landscapes, not just figurative ones. Considering the pastoral in literature from Virgil and Petrarch to Jonson and Milton, the book proposes a new ecocritical approach to these texts: we only become truly aware of our environment when its survival is threatened. As London expanded rapidly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the city and surrounding rural landscapes began to look markedly different. The book finds that Renaissance writers were acutely aware that the countryside they had known was being lost to air pollution, deforestation, and changing patterns of land use; their works suggest this new absence of nature through their appreciation for the scraps that remained in memory or in fact. A much-needed corrective to the prevailing interpretation of pastoral poetry, the book shows the value of reading literature with an ecological eye.Less
Pastoral was one of the most popular literary forms of early modern England. Inspired by classical and Italian Renaissance antecedents, writers from Ben Jonson to John Beaumont and Abraham Cowley wrote in idealized terms about the English countryside. It is often argued that the Renaissance pastoral was a highly figurative mode of writing that had more to do with culture and politics than with the actual countryside of England. For decades now literary criticism has had it that in pastoral verse, hills and crags and moors were extolled for their metaphoric worth, rather than for their own qualities. This book takes a fresh look at pastoral, offering an environmentally minded reading that reconnects the poems with literal landscapes, not just figurative ones. Considering the pastoral in literature from Virgil and Petrarch to Jonson and Milton, the book proposes a new ecocritical approach to these texts: we only become truly aware of our environment when its survival is threatened. As London expanded rapidly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the city and surrounding rural landscapes began to look markedly different. The book finds that Renaissance writers were acutely aware that the countryside they had known was being lost to air pollution, deforestation, and changing patterns of land use; their works suggest this new absence of nature through their appreciation for the scraps that remained in memory or in fact. A much-needed corrective to the prevailing interpretation of pastoral poetry, the book shows the value of reading literature with an ecological eye.
Andrew G. Walder and Dong Guoqiang
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780691213217
- eISBN:
- 9780691214979
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691213217.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This book chronicles the surprising and dramatic political conflicts of a rural Chinese county over the course of the Cultural Revolution. The book uncovers a previously unimagined level of strife in ...
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This book chronicles the surprising and dramatic political conflicts of a rural Chinese county over the course of the Cultural Revolution. The book uncovers a previously unimagined level of strife in the countryside that began with the Red Guard Movement in 1966 and continued unabated until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Showing how the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution were not limited to urban areas, but reached far into isolated rural regions, the book reveals that the intervention of military forces in 1967 encouraged factional divisions in Feng County because different branches of China's armed forces took various sides in local disputes. The book also lays bare how the fortunes of local political groups were closely tethered to unpredictable shifts in the decisions of government authorities in Beijing. Eventually, a backlash against suppression and victimization grew in the early 1970s and resulted in active protests, which presaged the settling of scores against radical Maoism. A meticulous look at how one overlooked region experienced the Cultural Revolution, the book illuminates the all-encompassing nature of one of the most unstable periods in modern Chinese history.Less
This book chronicles the surprising and dramatic political conflicts of a rural Chinese county over the course of the Cultural Revolution. The book uncovers a previously unimagined level of strife in the countryside that began with the Red Guard Movement in 1966 and continued unabated until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Showing how the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution were not limited to urban areas, but reached far into isolated rural regions, the book reveals that the intervention of military forces in 1967 encouraged factional divisions in Feng County because different branches of China's armed forces took various sides in local disputes. The book also lays bare how the fortunes of local political groups were closely tethered to unpredictable shifts in the decisions of government authorities in Beijing. Eventually, a backlash against suppression and victimization grew in the early 1970s and resulted in active protests, which presaged the settling of scores against radical Maoism. A meticulous look at how one overlooked region experienced the Cultural Revolution, the book illuminates the all-encompassing nature of one of the most unstable periods in modern Chinese history.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207443
- eISBN:
- 9780191677670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207443.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
In 1996, the author published a history of seasonal festivities and rituals in Britain, which opened by questioning the view of the subject most commonly propagated by folklorists for most of the ...
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In 1996, the author published a history of seasonal festivities and rituals in Britain, which opened by questioning the view of the subject most commonly propagated by folklorists for most of the 20th century. It identified four main components to this. First, it characterized the only interesting calender customs as rural, different in quality to the observances of towns and cities. Second, it regarded them as essentially timeless and immemorial, relics of a distant, often pagan, past, surviving like living fossils in the static world of English country people. Third, those people were themselves treated as inarticulate, having long lost or distorted any sense of the meaning of their customary behaviour, which could be recovered only by the research of scholarly outsiders. Fourth, this perception was infused with a wider sense of the countryside as a place of charm and of mystery, resistant to the changes of the modern epoch and representing to some extent an antidote to their more troubling aspects. This construction of calendar customs has been rejected by folklorists since the 1970s. In response the author has suggested that further study was needed to answer the obvious question of why it was that so many English scholars between 1870 and 1970 were disposed to view the countryside as a timeless place in which immemorial practices were continued from a blind sense of tradition, and in particular practices that were held to be authentic traces of ancient pagan religion. This chapter attempts to provide such an answer.Less
In 1996, the author published a history of seasonal festivities and rituals in Britain, which opened by questioning the view of the subject most commonly propagated by folklorists for most of the 20th century. It identified four main components to this. First, it characterized the only interesting calender customs as rural, different in quality to the observances of towns and cities. Second, it regarded them as essentially timeless and immemorial, relics of a distant, often pagan, past, surviving like living fossils in the static world of English country people. Third, those people were themselves treated as inarticulate, having long lost or distorted any sense of the meaning of their customary behaviour, which could be recovered only by the research of scholarly outsiders. Fourth, this perception was infused with a wider sense of the countryside as a place of charm and of mystery, resistant to the changes of the modern epoch and representing to some extent an antidote to their more troubling aspects. This construction of calendar customs has been rejected by folklorists since the 1970s. In response the author has suggested that further study was needed to answer the obvious question of why it was that so many English scholars between 1870 and 1970 were disposed to view the countryside as a timeless place in which immemorial practices were continued from a blind sense of tradition, and in particular practices that were held to be authentic traces of ancient pagan religion. This chapter attempts to provide such an answer.
Bernhard Fulda
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199547784
- eISBN:
- 9780191720079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547784.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
How did the average German learn about politics? The decentral, fragmented nature of the German newspaper market meant that the great majority of contemporaries derived political information from a ...
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How did the average German learn about politics? The decentral, fragmented nature of the German newspaper market meant that the great majority of contemporaries derived political information from a local paper. This chapter gives a broad sweep of controversial issues as portrayed in a sample of provinical newspapers around Berlin in the period 1925–8. It shows that even in self‐professed ‘unpolitical’ newspapers ideological news coverage was the norm. At the same time, this book demonstrates that overt press support for particular candidates or parties did not have a significant effect. Only where alternative sources of information, like a competing newspaper of a different political orientation, did not exist could the press excert a noticeable electoral impact. The chapter gives new evidence for the regionality of German politics, and helps to explain the tensions between countryside and metropolis.Less
How did the average German learn about politics? The decentral, fragmented nature of the German newspaper market meant that the great majority of contemporaries derived political information from a local paper. This chapter gives a broad sweep of controversial issues as portrayed in a sample of provinical newspapers around Berlin in the period 1925–8. It shows that even in self‐professed ‘unpolitical’ newspapers ideological news coverage was the norm. At the same time, this book demonstrates that overt press support for particular candidates or parties did not have a significant effect. Only where alternative sources of information, like a competing newspaper of a different political orientation, did not exist could the press excert a noticeable electoral impact. The chapter gives new evidence for the regionality of German politics, and helps to explain the tensions between countryside and metropolis.
DAVID GARY SHAW
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204015
- eISBN:
- 9780191676086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204015.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
An exhaustive economic history of medieval Wells is not an appropriate undertaking for a social and cultural history. However, an outline of the economy — its occupational structure, the wares that ...
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An exhaustive economic history of medieval Wells is not an appropriate undertaking for a social and cultural history. However, an outline of the economy — its occupational structure, the wares that they produced, cloth-making, trade, the industrial organisation and conditions of labour, the vicissitudes that these elements suffered — is a necessity. Towns are distinguished more by their economic function than by their size. More than anything else, it is their role in the economy which separates them from the countryside. Manufacturing and commerce are dominant in the town, rather than tilling the soil or raising animals. However, the town's success is closely tied to the use of rural supplies of basic commodities. Economy presses itself because it is impossible to deny that economic structure and the growth and decline of business, affected social and cultural change during the Middle Ages.Less
An exhaustive economic history of medieval Wells is not an appropriate undertaking for a social and cultural history. However, an outline of the economy — its occupational structure, the wares that they produced, cloth-making, trade, the industrial organisation and conditions of labour, the vicissitudes that these elements suffered — is a necessity. Towns are distinguished more by their economic function than by their size. More than anything else, it is their role in the economy which separates them from the countryside. Manufacturing and commerce are dominant in the town, rather than tilling the soil or raising animals. However, the town's success is closely tied to the use of rural supplies of basic commodities. Economy presses itself because it is impossible to deny that economic structure and the growth and decline of business, affected social and cultural change during the Middle Ages.
Gordon White, Jude Howell, and Shang Xiaoyuan
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198289562
- eISBN:
- 9780191684739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198289562.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter examines the role of social organizations in two rapidly urbanizing rural areas in the economically dynamic coastal regions: the counties/cities of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang province and ...
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This chapter examines the role of social organizations in two rapidly urbanizing rural areas in the economically dynamic coastal regions: the counties/cities of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang province and Nanhai in Guangdong province. It evaluates how changes in the structure and dynamics of the rural economy have changed patterns of associational life in the countryside and small-scale rural cities and towns, particularly the decline of the rural collectives and the spread of ‘responsibility systems’ in agriculture, the diversification of agricultural production, and the burgeoning of small-scale rural industry. The chapter notes that the effects of the economic reform have been even more profound in China's countryside than in its cities. It conducts a preliminary assessment of the relative importance of social organizations in the ‘incorporated sector’ within the overall pattern of changes in rural associational life in rapidly developing areas.Less
This chapter examines the role of social organizations in two rapidly urbanizing rural areas in the economically dynamic coastal regions: the counties/cities of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang province and Nanhai in Guangdong province. It evaluates how changes in the structure and dynamics of the rural economy have changed patterns of associational life in the countryside and small-scale rural cities and towns, particularly the decline of the rural collectives and the spread of ‘responsibility systems’ in agriculture, the diversification of agricultural production, and the burgeoning of small-scale rural industry. The chapter notes that the effects of the economic reform have been even more profound in China's countryside than in its cities. It conducts a preliminary assessment of the relative importance of social organizations in the ‘incorporated sector’ within the overall pattern of changes in rural associational life in rapidly developing areas.
M. E. Bratchel
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204848
- eISBN:
- 9780191676420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204848.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines the prevailing aristocratic mentality, together with the connected themes of urban relations with and attitudes towards the countryside. For countrymen it was no doubt difficult ...
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This chapter examines the prevailing aristocratic mentality, together with the connected themes of urban relations with and attitudes towards the countryside. For countrymen it was no doubt difficult to distinguish between Lucchese citizens and the state which they controlled. It was for this reason that rural conspirators looked to political revolution and to the restoration of princely rule. But there is no simple identification of the interests of the state with the private interests of the leading citizens who dominated its councils.Less
This chapter examines the prevailing aristocratic mentality, together with the connected themes of urban relations with and attitudes towards the countryside. For countrymen it was no doubt difficult to distinguish between Lucchese citizens and the state which they controlled. It was for this reason that rural conspirators looked to political revolution and to the restoration of princely rule. But there is no simple identification of the interests of the state with the private interests of the leading citizens who dominated its councils.
Shaun Spiers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447339991
- eISBN:
- 9781447346661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447339991.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
England has a housing crisis. We need to build many more new homes to house our growing population, but house building is controversial, particularly when it involves the loss of countryside. ...
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England has a housing crisis. We need to build many more new homes to house our growing population, but house building is controversial, particularly when it involves the loss of countryside. Addressing both sides of this critical debate, this book argues that to drive house building on the scale needed, government must strike a contract with civil society: in return for public support and acceptance of the loss of some countryside, it must guarantee high-quality, affordable developments, in the right locations. Simply imposing development, as recent governments of all political persuasions have attempted, will not work. Focusing on house building and conservation politics in England, this book demonstrates why the current model doesn't work, and why there needs to be both planning reform and a more active role for the state, including local government.Less
England has a housing crisis. We need to build many more new homes to house our growing population, but house building is controversial, particularly when it involves the loss of countryside. Addressing both sides of this critical debate, this book argues that to drive house building on the scale needed, government must strike a contract with civil society: in return for public support and acceptance of the loss of some countryside, it must guarantee high-quality, affordable developments, in the right locations. Simply imposing development, as recent governments of all political persuasions have attempted, will not work. Focusing on house building and conservation politics in England, this book demonstrates why the current model doesn't work, and why there needs to be both planning reform and a more active role for the state, including local government.
