NOVEMBER 2023 LECTURE: JOAN THIRSK AND THE POROUS FRONTIERS OF ENGLISH REGIONAL AND LOCAL HISTORY
Another chance to see our November 2023 Lecture - Professor R.C. Richardson looks at the career of historian Joan Thirsk (1922-2013) who did so much to re-define what the properly contextualised study of English local history could be and could do. Although chiefly a specialist in agrarian history, her interests extended far more broadly and the lecture offers an overall assessment of her landmark status.
With an immensely productive career spanning several decades first at the University of Leicester and then at Oxford, Joan Thirsk (1922-2013) did so much to re-define what the properly contextualised study of English local history could be and do.
Chiefly a specialist in the field of agrarian history, her academic interests extended far more broadly and she made her mark in all the various subjects she addressed, among them food history, internal trade, inheritance customs, consumerism, cross-cultural contacts and the rural origins of industry. Her general editorship and part authorship of the monumental 10,000 page Agrarian History of England was her greatest achievement. This lecture offers an overall assessment of her landmark status.
Professor R.C.Richardson is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Winchester and is President of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on early modern England.