Social Investigation and Rural England, 1870-1914.(Book Review)

Mark Freeman. Social Investigation and Rural England, 1870-1914. Rochester, N. Y.: Boydell Press. 2003. Pp. xi, 217. $70.00. ISBN 0-86193-257-9.

As urbanization and its associated problems spread in England, rural areas became increasingly idealized in popular imagination. The countryside evoked images of beauty, health, and traditional values, and it was commonly assumed that for those living in such idyllic surroundings the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. Historians seem to share this view, Mark Freeman notes, since most research on late-nineteenth-century social problems ...

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