Description
Book SynopsisHow landowners, drainage projectors, and investors worked with the Crown to transform England's waterlogged Fens. 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleThe draining of the Fens in eastern England was one of the largest engineering projects in seventeenth-century Europe. A series of Dutch and English projectors, working over several decades and with the full support of the Crown, transformed hundreds of thousands of acres of putatively barren wetlands into dry, arable farmland. The drainage project was also supposed to reform the sickly, backward fenlanders into civilized, healthy farmers, to the benefit of the entire commonwealth. As projectors reconstructed entire river systems, these new, artificial channels profoundly altered both the landscape and the lives of those who lived on it. In this definitive account, historian Eric H. Ash provides a detailed history of this ambitious undertaking. Ash traces the endeavor from the 1570s, when draining the whole of the Fens became an imagi
Trade ReviewStunningly relevant and beautifully written . . . This remarkable book is about nation building, economics, and environmental and social history. It is thoroughly researched, and historian Ash tells his story in a compelling way that is accessible to any reader. Essential. All levels/libraries.
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ChoiceAsh's book is a sound study of the drainage of one part of the southern fens over a period of less than a century that was without doubt the most formative era in its taming. It is well-written, informative, assiduously referenced with copious endnotes, and an excellent testimony to the wealth of documentation that survives in the archives.
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Environment and HistoryAn excellent contribution to the history of engineering projects, particularly from an environmental and political point of view.
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MetascienceThis comprehensive account is likely to become the standard textbook for the history of the Fens. It is thoroughly researched, drawing on a wide range of printed material in addition to archival sources including court records, petitions, correspondence, and state papers.
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Renaissance QuarterlyThe book is certainly the account for our generation.
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American Historical ReviewAsh's work will long remain an essential account of these important events.
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Journal of British StudiesAsh supplies a rousing narrative of 'improvement' schemes in the wetlands of eastern England, written in an engaging Whiggish style that imbues the early Stuart dynastic state.
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Journal of Modern HistoryTable of ContentsDedication
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction. The Unrecovered Country: Draining the Land, Building the State
Part I: Popular Politics, Crown Authority, and the Rise of the Projector
Chapter 1: Land and Life in the Pre-Drainage Fens
Chapter 2: State Building in the Fens, 1570-1607
Chapter 3: The Crisis of Local Governance, 1609-1616
Chapter 4: The Struggle to Forge Consensus, 1617-1621
Part II: Drainage Projects, Violent Resistance, and State Building
Chapter 5: Draining the Hatfield Level, 1625-1636
Chapter 6: The First Great Level Drainage, 1630-1642
Chapter 7: Riot, Civil War, and Popular Politics in the Hatfield Level, 1640-1656
Chapter 8: The Second Great Level drainage, 1649-1656
Epilogue. The Once and Future Fens: Unintended Consequences in an Artificial Landscape
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
