Crisis and Development
An Ecological Case Study of the Forest of Arden 1570–1674

Victor Skipp constructs a detailed model of demographic, economic and social change for a sample group of English communities.

Victor Skipp (Author)

9780521088503, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2008

148 pages
23 x 16 x 0.9 cm, 0.23 kg

During the Tudor and Stuart periods the population of England doubled, increasing from perhaps 2.5 to 5 million. When the total had last reached the 4–5 million mark, in the early fourteenth century, there had been a sharp Malthusian cut-back. How then did the country manage to break through this crucial barrier at its second attempt? Victor Skipp throws light on this question by constructing a detailed model of demographic, economic and social change for a sample group of English communities. After examing the effect of the ecological adjustments on social structure, domestic and cultural life, Mr Skipp turns to the wider implications of his model, considering the possibilities of adapting it to the analysis of sixteenth and seventeenth century developments in other English communities; how it might be related to the 'general European crisis', particularly as expounded in the regional studies of French historians; and to the political alignment of local inhabitants during the English civil war.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Part I. The Context: 1. The national background
2. The local setting
3. The ecological approach
Part II. The Case Study: 4. The demographic crisis of 1613–19
5. Negative responses
6. The ecological problem
7. Positive responses: agrarian change
8. Positive responses: new employment openings
9. Model of demographic, economic and social developments, 1575–1649
10. The new ecological regime, 1625–74
11. The social cost
Part III. Implications: 12. General propositions
13. The 'General European Crisis'
14. The Civil War alignment
Appendix I: the practice of birth control
Appendix II: estimates of population size
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: History [HB]