English Geographies 1600-1950

English Geographies presents a set of seven interlinked inquiries into the ways in which geographical variations in the material conditions of existence and their representation in maps, poetry, and prose need to be incorporated into our understanding of the patterns of English history. The essays range widely, treating subjects as diverse as criminality in Oxfordshire, the birth of the preservation movement in Epping Forest, and Shakespeares representation of forest cultures, but they are unified by two underlying beliefs: in the centrality of geographical variation to the understanding of history, and in the need to ground such inquiry in rigorous empirical work. These beliefs spring from a shared scholarly kinship amongst the contributors to the career and work of Jack Langton, to whom these essays are dedicated on the occasion of his retirement. Providing new angles on key topics in English history, these essays will be essential reading for a wide range of scholars of English social, economic, and cultural history, and will offer undergraduate and graduate students of geography a convincing alternative to some of the more esoteric and ephemeral works of cultural geography.