Land Reform in the British and Irish Isles since 1800

This book is a useful collection of essays on land reform in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1800. It emphasizes the key differences between the four nations, arguing that there has been ‘an imbalance of intensity between Scotland, Ireland and Wales, where land reform centred on the nature and conditions of tenure, protections and land distribution, and England, where it has been more diffuse, feeding into a multitude of debates, including enclosure, commons, game, housing and conservation’. The book is made up of 14 ‘original case studies’, written by a range of contributors, mainly historians but also including lawyers and estate managers, offering expertise and life experiences outside the traditional domain of academic historians. -- Michael Tichelar * Agricultural History Review *
This collection of essays on the politics, projects, and processes of land reform in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England is a very varied, timely and informative contribution to the subject [...] This volume should be essential reading for scholars and students interested in the subject, not least because it explains the legislative developments on both sides of the Irish Sea with great clarity, insightful detail and via broad chronological span. -- Henry French * Family & Community History *
Who owned the countryside was a burning political question in the nineteenth and early twentieth century in all the nations of Britain and Ireland. It has never been resolved. This splendid book brings new energy to our knowledge of the historical question and contributes to a necessary discussion about our own times. * Richard Hoyle, Visiting Professor of Economic History, University of Reading *
the collection illustrates just how ‘multifaceted’ an issue land was and remains in the British and Irish Isles, and readers should be encouraged to approach the collection in its entirety as an opportunity to interrogate that multidimensionality. -- Naomi Lloyd-Jones, Durham University * The Welsh History Review *