Arthur Young (1741–1820) was one of the most important agriculturalists and social commentators of the eighteenth century. The account of his journeys around France (1787–9), also published in this series, remains a vital source for understanding the conditions of rural France on the cusp of revolution. The reports produced on agriculture in the English counties when he was Secretary to the Board of Agriculture from 1793 remain valuable historical sources of farming practices at the end of the eighteenth century. In later life, under the influence of his friend William Wilberforce, he became increasingly concerned at the effects of population growth and rising prices upon the rural poor in Britain. These memoirs, published in 1898, are of 'an untiring experimentalist and dreamer of economic dreams … a brilliant man of society and the world', and they give detail to 'a life singularly interesting and singularly sad'.
| ISBN: | 9781108047746 |
| Publication date: | 10th May 2012 |
| Author: | Arthur Young |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 508 pages |
| Series: | Cambridge Library Collection - British & Irish History, 17th & 18th Centuries |
| Genres: |
Social and cultural history European history Autobiography: historical, political and military |