War, agriculture, and food : rural Europe from the 1930s to the 1950s / edited by Paul Brassley, Yves Segers, and Leen Van Molle

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Between the 1930s and the 1950s rural life in Europe underwent profound changes, partly as a result of the Second World War, and partly as a result of changes which had been in progress over many years. This book examines a range of European countries, from Scandinavia to Spain and Ireland to Hungary, during this crucial period, and identifies the common pressures to which they all responded and the features that were unique to individual countries. In particular, it examines the processes of agricultural development over western Europe as a...

List of tables -- List of figures -- Introduction / Leen Van Molle, Yves Segers, and Paul Brassley -- The international perspective -- Natura non fecit saltus : the 1930s as the discontinuity in the history of European agriculture / Giovanni Federico -- International trade in agricultural products, 1935-1955 / Paul Brassley -- State regulation and agricultural policy -- Paths to productivism : agricultural regulation in the second World War and its aftermath in Great Britain and German-annexed Austria / John Martin and Ernst Langthaler -- Spanish agriculture 1931-1955 : crisis, wars, and new policies in the reshaping of rural society / Juan Pan-Montojo -- Wartime agricultural policy in peacetime : a case study of Hungary, 1940-1956 / Zsuzsanna Varga -- The state : farmer relationship -- From war profits to post-war investments : how the German occupation improved investments in Danish agriculture in the post-war years / Mogens R.Nissen -- Corporatism, agricultural modernisation and war in Ireland and Switzerland, 1935-55 / Peter Moser and Tony Varley -- Farming, favoured in times of fear : swedish agricultural politics 1935-55 / Carin Martiin -- The social impact of state control of agriculture in Britain 1939-55 / Brian Short -- Rural identities -- Change in the European countryside : peasants and democracy in Germany 1935-55 / Gesine Gerhard -- Heroes of the reconstruction : images of British farmers in war and peace / Clare Griffiths -- Food stocks, the black market, and town and country tensions in France during two world wars and beyond / Edouard Lynch -- Conclusions / Paul Brassley, Yves Segers, and Leen Van Molle -- Notes on contributors -- Notes -- Index