Rural History in Europe

Promoting understanding of the rural landscapes of today in the light of historical experience: such is the ambition of this new collection devoted to European rural history.  Over recent years, the rural world has undergone radical modifications, even if these have occurred at different paces and in various specific forms from one end of the continent to the other.  Indeed, rural societies everywhere have experienced decisive changes, agricultures have developed very rapidly, and landscapes have been profoundly altered.  Today, farmers, a dying breed in the modern world, are called upon to respond to the needs, sometimes contradictory, so forcefully expressed by society; lands are under pressure from urban growth; villages are receiving new populations who have come to them from the cities.  Still, it would be wrong to believe that this spectacular casting off of the past has followed a long period of stability, stagnation, and immobility, and that rural landscapes are currently facing unheard-of challenges.  Rural environments have seen many other changes over previous centuries, and their history is rich in lessons if we seek to understand the ways that have been travelled, the issues that lie ahead, and the reality of a complex world.