Land and Society in Edwardian Britain

This 1997 book is a standard reference to the 1910 'New Domesday' data; essential for historians of Edwardian Britain.

Brian Short (Author)

9780521021777, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 November 2005

400 pages, 24 b/w illus. 32 maps 101 tables
22.8 x 15.5 x 2.2 cm, 0.601 kg

'… of enormous value to the historian … The impact of his analysis is enhanced by the excellent illustrations and high production standards of this volume … the result is the revelation of an archive of unrivalled importance for the historian of Britain, whether the interest be in political, economic, social, rural or urban history. Future historians and the profession as a whole are greatly in his debt.' History

This revealing 1997 book in the Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography series presents some of the first researches into a trove of hitherto inaccessible primary source material. A controversial component of Lloyd George's People's Budget of 1909–10 was the 'New Domesday' of landownership and land values. This rich documentation, for long locked away in the Inland Revenue's offices, became available to the public in the late 1970s. For the growing number of scholars of early twentieth century urban and rural Britain, Dr Short offers both a coherent overview and a standard source of reference to this valuable archive. Part I is concerned with the processes of assembling the material and its style of representation; Part II with suggested themes and locality studies. A final chapter places this new material in the context of discourses of state intervention in landed society prior to the Great War.

Preface
1. An introduction
Part I. Processes and Representations: 2. Lloyd George, the 1909 Budget and the land campaign
3. The national structure of the valuation process
4. The survey procedures and documents
5. The 1910 documents and archival policies
Part II. Themes and Locality Studies: 6. Projects and problems
7. Urban social area analysis 1909–14
8. Rural society and economy 1909–14
9. Rural industrial communities on the eve of the Great War
10. Contrasts and comparisons
11. The survey in Ireland
12. The survey in Scotland
13. A discourse of state power 1909–14
Bibliography
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]