WORKING THE LAND

Description

This book offers a new history of the farmworker in England from 1850 to the present day. It focuses on the paid worker, considering how the experiences of farm work – the work performed, wages earned and conditions of hiring – were shaped by gender, age and region. Combining data extracted from statistical sources with personal and autobiographical accounts, it places the individual farmworker back into a broader collective history. Beginning in the mid-Victorian era, when farmworkers were the most numerically significant occupational group in England, it considers the impact of economic, technological and social change on the scale and nature of farm work over the next hundred and fifty years, whilst also highlighting the continuation of some practices, including the use of casual and migrant workers to perform low-paid, seasonal work. Written in a lively and accessible manner, this book will appeal to those with an interest in rural history, gender history and modern British history. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Introduction: The Farmworker, Past and Present (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 1-20 Front Matter ....Pages 21-21 The Farm Servant (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 23-53 The Agricultural Labourer (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 55-88 The Casual and Seasonal Workforce (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 89-120 Front Matter ....Pages 121-121 Farm Labour during the First World War (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 123-156 The Interwar Years (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 157-188 Farm Labour and the Second World War (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 189-221 The Postwar Years (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 223-248 Conclusion: The Contemporary Agricultural Worker (Nicola Verdon)....Pages 249-264 Back Matter ....Pages 265-284