Burchardt, Jeremy 1969–

(Jeremy Frank Sebastian Burchardt)

PERSONAL:

Born February 15, 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, University of Reading, Whiteknights, P.O. Box 217, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, England. E-mail—j.f.s.burchardt@rdg.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, England, lecturer in rural history, 1997—. Creator and chair of the Interwar Rural History Research Group, 2000.

MEMBER:

Royal Historical Society.

WRITINGS:

The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, Boydell Press (Rochester, NY), 2002.

Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change in England since 1800, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Paul Brassley and Lynne Thompson) The English Countryside between the Wars: Regeneration or Decline?, Boydell Press (Rochester, NY), 2006.

Contributor to academic journals, including Agricultural History Review and Agriculture and Politics in England. Editor of journal Berkshire Old and New, 1999-2005; member of editorial board, Rural History: Economy, Society, Culture, 2001—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeremy Burchardt is a professor of rural history at the University of Reading in Great Britain. His books focus on how rural culture has influenced modern British society. The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, adapted from Burchardt's doctoral thesis, charts the distribution of farm land among rural residents, particularly in southern and eastern counties, from historical documents. In an era prone to peasant revolts, land allotments created a more equitable economic structure, lifting tenant farmers out of poverty and improving their relations with landowners, who were frequently the clergy members of the area. Along the way, these formerly impoverished citizens gained a solid work ethic and became a positive force in the community rather than a burden. Revolts waned, church attendance rose, and the newly founded Labourer's Friend Society provided an official avenue to political participation. "The value of Burchardt's book," wrote Jamie L. Bronstein in Albion, "for having opened to scrutiny this little-studied facet of nineteenth-century life, is incontrovertible."

Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change in England since 1800 explores the "town versus country" divide that has been a mainstay of British culture for centuries, and which has been reinforced by government policy, economics, and the popularity of small-farm agriculture. Topics include the influence of the literary Romantics, who idealized the countryside, the agrarian radicalism of the pre-Victorian era and land reform after 1850, the organic movement prior to World War II and rural nostalgia following the war. Burchardt's goal is to reconcile the fictional realm of idyllic nature with that of the pragmatic network of villages dependent upon agriculture. Critics appreciated the author's perspective. "Until now no book has tried to put the two together to make a history of rural England in both representation and reality," wrote Peter Mandler in a review for Albion.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, Volume 36, issue 1, spring, 2004, Jamie L. Bronstein, review of The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, p. 134; Volume 36, issue 1, spring, 2004, Peter Mandler, review of Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change since 1800, p. 144.

Choice, May, 2003, C.W. Wood, Jr., review of Paradise Lost, p. 1613; July-August, 2003, J.P. McKay, review of The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, p. 1975; September, 2007, H.L. Smith, review of The English Countryside between the Wars: Regeneration or Decline?, p. 166.

Economic History Review, November, 2004, Mark Freeman, review of The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, p. 780; November, 2007, E.J.T. Collins, review of The English Countryside between the Wars, p. 840.

English Historical Review, September, 2003, J.V. Beckett, review of The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, p. 1067.

History, July, 2007, Charles Watkins, review of The English Countryside between the Wars, p. 421.

Journal of Economic History, September, 2003, Michael Turner, review of The Allotment Movement in England, 1793-1873, pp. 871-872.