{"product_id":"the-draining-of-the-fens-9781421443300","title":"The Draining of the Fens","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow 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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStunningly 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.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAsh'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.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEnvironment and History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excellent contribution to the history of engineering projects, particularly from an environmental and political point of view.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMetascience\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eRenaissance Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book is certainly the account for our generation.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eAmerican Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAsh's work will long remain an essential account of these important events.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJournal of British Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAsh 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.\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJournal of Modern History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDedication\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbbreviations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction. The Unrecovered Country: Draining the Land, Building the State\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart I: Popular Politics, Crown Authority, and the Rise of the Projector\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 1: Land and Life in the Pre-Drainage Fens \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 2: State Building in the Fens, 1570-1607\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 3: The Crisis of Local Governance, 1609-1616\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 4: The Struggle to Forge Consensus, 1617-1621\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart II: Drainage Projects, Violent Resistance, and State Building \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 5: Draining the Hatfield Level, 1625-1636\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 6: The First Great Level Drainage, 1630-1642\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 7: Riot, Civil War, and Popular Politics in the Hatfield Level, 1640-1656\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter 8: The Second Great Level drainage, 1649-1656\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEpilogue. The Once and Future Fens: Unintended Consequences in an Artificial Landscape\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGlossary\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBibliography\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739136176471,"sku":"9781421443300","price":29.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781421443300.jpg?v=1720051273","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-draining-of-the-fens-9781421443300","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}