The British Agricultural History Society, founded in 1952, is the society for the study of all aspects of the history of agriculture, rural society and economy in the British Isles. It publishes the leading English language journal of rural history, Agricultural History Review. The Review’s remit primarily covers the British Isles and Europe but also the Americas, and it is interested in receiving articles on the colonial and modern agriculture and rural societies of the rest of the world. Recent contributions to the Review include a group of papers on the experience of eastern Europe under serfdom, and papers on Nigerian and New Zealand agriculture. The Review also tries to be comprehensive in its reviews of the English-language literature (and the most important works in other European languages) and publishes an annual bibliography of work on British agricultural and rural history. Members also receive a bi-annual newsletter, Rural History Today.
The best guide to the contents of the Review is, of course, the Review itself: this is available on-line at the moment of publication through the Ingenta website but also through the Society’s own website (here a five year moving wall applies).
The Society is quite emphatic that it is a society and not merely just a publisher. It brings the community of agricultural and rural historians together at an annual residential conference at Easter and a one-day Winter Conference traditionally held in London on the first Saturday in December. It also sponsors occasional conferences from time to time. Its meetings bring together a mix of academic historians and students with historians working outside the universities with a few (but very valued) ‘practical men’.
Homepage: http://www.bahs.org.uk/