The volumes in this set, originally published between 1969 and 1990, draw together research by leading academics in the area of the rural history and provide an examination of related key issues. The volumes examine social change in rural communities approaching the industrial revolution, whilst also providing an overview of the history of rural populations in England, France, Germany, Mexico and the United States. This set will be of particular interest to students of history, business and economics.

The greatest problem in historical scholarship, theoretically and practically, is the relation between historians and their subject matter. The past is gone and historians can only study its remnants. On what basis do scholars select certain facts from the mass of data left from the past? How do they explain the interrelationship of the facts they select? What criteria do they use to evaluate their subject? The 35 volumes in this set, originally published between 1926 and 1990 discuss and answer these essential questions faced by historians. The development of historical understanding during the 18th and 19th centuries was one of the most striking features of Western culture. Both historiography and historical thinking advanced as never before. The historial movment of the 19th century was perhaps second only to the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century in transforming Western thought. One consequence was extensive organisation and professionalization of research, which the volumes in this set reflect.

The volumes in this set, originally published between 1968 and 1989, draw together research by leading academics in the area of the British Empire and provides an examination of related key issues. The volumes examine slavery in the British Empire, problems encountered in India in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, as well as the Empire at its most powerful. This set will be of particular interest to students of British, colonial, and world history.

Reissuing works originally published between 1952 and 1999, this set provides a wide spread of scholarship on issues surrounding food provision throughout the world. The earlier books look at import and export changes during times when previous trade routes and options changed while later ones mostly consider food assistance policies, poverty and famine, and welfare. These books cover third world studies, economics, anthropology, politics, environment, agriculture and population studies as well as food and nutrition.

This 11-volume set gathers together some key older titles on China’s history. Encompassing China’s political, economic, and cultural development, the books gathered here also deal with contacts with the West both ancient and modern.

This set examines a vast range of topics covering all experiences of business and economics from across Asia. Dealing with early banking systems in China; the industrialisation of Korea and Taiwan; the evolution of Japanese business practices; economic development; protectionist policies; industrial investment; trade; tourism; and a host of other topics, the books collected here form a vital reference resource across a wide subject area.

In this book, first published in 1980, the author draws a vivid picture of what country life was like for the vast majority of English villagers – agricultural labourers, craftsmen and small farmers – during a period of rapid agricultural development. This study analyses the influence of the enclosure movement on farming methods and on the structure of village life, and examines the devastating effects of the Napoleonic wars on English society. The Rural World is based on a wide range of sources, including parliamentary papers, contemporary letters, diaries and account books, and official records such as those relating to the Poor Law and the courts. It provides a fascinating overview of all aspects of rural life – from employment to home conditions, education, charity, crime, the role of religion and the influence of politics – during a critical period in English history.

This book, first published in 1983, is a major contribution to our understanding of how and why French rural peasant society became modernised by radical changes in the communications system – in particular, the coming of the railways. The author argues that complex changes in the transport systems, and their effects on agricultural market structures, finally brought traditional French rural civilisation to an end. With the extension of commercialisation, and the widening of horizons, new economic and social structures – and changed attitudes – rapidly came into being. Writing as an economic historian, the author has adopted an interdisciplinary approach to this study which incorporates economic, sociological, historical and geographical methods and data.

This collection of previously out-of-print titles examines the state of Turkey in both its Ottoman and modern incarnations. Radical politics are detailed alongside constitutional democracy, as well as Ottoman politics and history.