Land Agent

Explores the role of land agents in Britain and its imperial territories between c. 1700-1920

This book brings together leading researchers of British and Irish rural history to consider the role of the land agent, or estate manager, in the modern period. Land agents were an influential and powerful cadre of men, who managed both the day-to-day running and the overall policy direction of landed estates. As such, they occupy a controversial place in academic historiography as well as popular memory in rural Britain and Ireland. Reviled in social history narratives and fictional accounts, the land agent was one of the most powerful tools in the armoury of the British and Irish landed classes and their territorial, political and social dominance. By unpacking the nature and processes of their power, The Land Agent explores who these men were and what was the wider significance of their roles, thus uncovering a neglected history of British rural society.

Contributors

• David Gent, University of York
• Ewen A. Cameron, University of Edinburgh
• John MacGregor, Independent Scholar
• Fidelma Byrne, Maynooth University
• Rachel Murphy, University College Cork
• Finlay McKichan, Independent Scholar
• Lowri Ann Rees, Bangor University
• Anne Casement, Independent Scholar
• Ciarán Reilly, Independent Scholar
• Shaun Evans, Bangor University
• Robin K. Campbell, Independent Scholar
• Kirsty Gunn, University of Dundee
• Annie Tindley, Newcastle University