After The Ruins
Restoring the Countryside of Northern France after the Great War
Distributed for University of Exeter Press
“Hugh Clout has written a scholarly, dense text on an engrossing topic that will be of interest to all concerned with reconstruction after the First World War, and indeed interested in the still neglected interwar period of European historical geography.” –Journal of Economic and Social Geography
“Clout provides a wealth of fascinating detail on conflicts and tensions between the various local interest groups and political organizations that emerged to coordinate reconstruction; between the local, national and even international initiatives that were involved, and between the different secular and religious agencies. The book has been very nicely produced by the publishers and has more than 40 superb maps and around a dozen photographs which convey both the nature of the devastation and the energy of those who rebuilt. This is, in short, an extremely important work which deserves to be widely read by geographers and historians alike. It will stand as a fitting memorial to the efforts (successful or otherwise) of all those who strove to overcome the terrible damage of modern war.” –Geographical Journal, 163 (3), 1997
“. . . a pathbreaking contribution to the literature. . . The effects of the war on land use, mechanization, dispersion of the population and their resettlement have never been as carefully treated. There are powerful and telling surveys of the negotiation between local residents and official organizations over the extent of damage, and the appropriate levels of compensation for the devastation brought about by the war. There are original interpretations of the use of Chinese labour on reclamation projects, on the presence of workers from Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain and Portugal, as well as resistance to the notion that German workers might rebuild where previously their brethren had destroyed. There is interesting detail on these fields as the repository of huge necropoli, and the commemorative efforts which organized the cemeteries which are still sprinkled liberally across this diagonal linking Belgium and Switzerland.” –Journal of Historical Geography, 1997
1. The war-torn zone
2. The intensity of devastation
3. The start of emergency action
4. The Service des Travaux de Première Urgence
5. Motoculture
6. The Office de Reconstitution Agricole
7. Achievements of the emergency phase
8. Principles of compensation, rules of reconstruction
9. Reconstruction cooperatives
10. Land and livelihood: continuity and change
11. Toward a balance sheet
Index
History: European History
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