Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change since 1800 (International Library of Historical Studies)

In this remarkable book Jeremy Burchardt traces the influence that attitudes toward the countryside have had on the evolution of modern British life. In the "town versus country" debate, Burchardt looks at the idealization of the countryside by artists and writers, the development of anti-urban and anti-industrial values, rural-urban commuting, environmentalist criticism of industrial farming, and the effect on government policy, social structure, and economic dynamism.