Overview

Since at least the Reformation, English men and women have been engaged in visiting, exploring and portraying, in words and images, the landscape of their nation. The Invention of the English Landscape examines these journeys and investigations to explore how the natural and historic English landscape was reconfigured to become a widely enjoyed cultural and leisure resource. Peter Borsay considers the manifold forces behind this transformation, such as the rise of consumer culture, the media, industrial and transport revolutions, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the Gothic revival. In doing so, he reveals the development of a powerful bond between landscape and natural identity, against the backdrop of social and political change from the early modern period to the start of the Second World War. Borsay’s interdisciplinary approach demonstrates how human understandings of the natural world shaped the geography of England, and uncovers a wealth of valuable material, from novels and poems to paintings, that expose historical understandings of the landscape. This innovative approach illuminates how the English countryside and historic buildings became cultural icons behind which the nation was rallied during war-time, and explores the emergence of a post-war heritage industry that is now a definitive part of British cultural life.

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9781350031678

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Reviews

A masterly work- wide-sweeping, provocative, readable- by one of Britain's leading cultural historians. Peopled with poets and novelists, antiquarians and fossil collectors, churchmen, hack journalists, artists and composers ( Elgar, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams) , Borsay's book recounts the story of the imagining and reimagining of England's landscape, as the nation was transformed by industrial urbanisation and the insatiable rise of London, the transport revolution, Romanticism, and the racist snobbery of Empire. * Peter Clark, Professor of European Urban History, University of Helsinki, FInland * Researched and written at a time when the ecological, economic and cultural value of land is being irresistibly reimagined, it testifies to humanity's enduring attachment to landscape, and the fascination and alarm that has historically accompanied its transformation. * Katy Layton-Jones, School of History, The Open University, UK * Rich, intricate, enchanting, jam-packed with information, at times surprising and at times eccentric: this book is a must for all lovers of the English countryside. Peter Borsay, with the sympathetic editorial aid of Rosemary Sweet, here presents his masterpiece. * Penelope J. Corfield, Emeritus Prof., Royal Holloway, London University, UK * A splendid memorial to the late Peter Borsay, expertly edited and completed by Rosemary Sweet, this book emphasises the role of imagery, myth and imagination in inventing the English landscape. Chronologically wide-ranging, consistently thought-provoking, and attentive to urban as well as rural contexts, it is a hugely satisfying read. * Paul Readman, Professor of Modern British History, King's College London, UK *

A masterly work- wide-sweeping, provocative, readable- by one of Britain's leading cultural historians. Peopled with poets and novelists, antiquarians and fossil collectors, churchmen, hack journalists, artists and composers ( Elgar, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams) , Borsay's book recounts the story of the imagining and reimagining of England's landscape, as the nation was transformed by industrial urbanisation and the insatiable rise of London, the transport revolution, Romanticism, and the racist snobbery of Empire. * Peter Clark, Professor of European Urban History, University of Helsinki, FInland * Researched and written at a time when the ecological, economic and cultural value of land is being irresistibly reimagined, it testifies to humanity's enduring attachment to landscape, and the fascination and alarm that has historically accompanied its transformation. * Katy Layton-Jones, Professor of History, The Open University, UK *

A masterly work- wide-sweeping, provocative, readable- by one of Britain's leading cultural historians. Peopled with poets and novelists, antiquarians and fossil collectors, churchmen, hack journalists, artists and composers ( Elgar, Butterworth, Vaughan Williams) , Borsay's book recounts the story of the imagining and reimagining of England's landscape, as the nation was transformed by industrial urbanisation and the insatiable rise of London, the transport revolution, Romanticism, and the racist snobbery of Empire. * Peter Clark, Professor of European Urban History, University of Helsinki, FInland *

Author Information

Peter Borsay was Professor of History at Aberystwyth University, UK, a member of the advisory boards of Urban History and the Journal of Tourism History, and a committee member of the British Pre-Modern Towns Group. His books include The English Urban Renaissance (1989); The Image of Georgian Bath, 1700-2000: Towns, Heritage and History (2000); and A History of Leisure: the British Experience since 1500 (2006). He has co-edited Resorts and Ports: European Seaside Towns since 1700 (2011) and Leisure Cultures in Urban Europe, c. 1700-1870: a Transnational Perspective (2016). Rosemary Sweet is Professor of Urban History and Director of the Centre of Urban History at the University of Leicester, UK. She is the author of The English Town, 1680-1840 and The Writing of Urban Histories in Eighteenth-Century England.

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