Rural history

Rural history is sub-field of social history which researches the history of life in the countryside. It can be considered a counterpart of urban history. Rural history can be considered distinct from agricultural history which has traditionally examined the economic and technological history of agriculture.

A number of academic journals exist with a focus on rural history, including Histoire & Sociétés Rurales in France; Agricultural History in the United States; and Agricultural History Review and Rural History in the United Kingdom.

Rural history emerged as a distinct discipline from Agricultural history in the 1980s and was inspired by the French Annales school which favoured integrating economic, social and political history. Initially focused predominantly on the social history of rural life and later became increasingly interested in cultural history.

In Europe, the study of rural history is supported by the European Rural History Organisation (ERHO).

Burchardt (2007) evaluates the state of English rural history and focuses on an "orthodox" school dealing chiefly with the economic history of agriculture. The orthodox historians made "impressive progress" in quantifying and explaining the growth of output and productivity since the agricultural revolution. A challenge came from a dissident tradition that looked chiefly at the negative social costs of agricultural progress, especially enclosure. In the late 20th century there arose a new school, associated with the journal Rural History. Led by Alun Howkins, it links rural Britain to a wider social history. Burchardt calls for a new countryside history, paying more attention to the cultural and representational aspects that shaped 20th-century rural life.

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