Books by Nigel Smith

This study evaluates the methodologies used to prepare the national Rural Settlement Atlas, published by Roberts and Wrathmell in 2000, and the English Heritage sponsored Historic Landscape Characterisation exercises that have been undertaken at a county level since 1998. Both methodologies are morphological, based on deriving meaning from patterns in the landscape. The evaluation seeks to determine the extent to which they can offer an accurate portrayal of historic landscape character in the upland study area of the Upper Calder Valley in the South Pennines, an area that has received very little attention from landscape historians to date. The basic approach taken by the book is to apply both methodologies to the study area before comparing the results with those obtained by more traditional landscape history methodologies. The book prefaces this evaluation with a discussion and explanation of the origins and processes of both methodologies, reviews the criticisms previously made, and examines the commonalities exhibited. The basic commonality of using a morphological approach is critically discussed in detail. A new model is proposed that combines the evidence of historical process with the morphological attributes of settlement and fieldscapes. While this model is based on the South Pennine pays, the principles involved in its construction are intended to be applicable in other landscape areas.

The Civil War and Interregnum have usually been marginalized as a literary period. This study shows that these central years of the 17th century constituted a turning point not only in the political, social and religious history but in literary genre, the use of language and its meaning.

This book explores the degree to which landscapes have been enriched with palms by human activities and the importance of palms for the lives of people in the region today and historically. Palms are a prominent feature of many landscapes in Amazonia, and they are important culturally, economically, and for a variety of ecological roles they play.

The Ranters - like the Levellers and the Diggers - were a group of religious libertarians who flourished during the English Civil War (1642-1651), a period of social and religious turmoil which saw, in the words of the historian Christopher Hill, 'the world turned upside down'. *BR**BR*A Collection of Ranter Writings is the most notable attempt to anthologise the key Ranter writings, bringing together some of the most remarkable, visionary and unforgettable texts. The subjects range from the limits to pleasure and divine right, to social justice and collective action.*BR**BR*The Ranters have intrigued and captivated generations of scholars and philosophers. This carefully curated collection will be of great interest to historians, philosophers and all those trying to understand past radical traditions.

Exploring in depth such specific areas as local food taboos, methods of preparation of food dishes, statistics of protein intake, and the productivity of fisheries, Man, Fishes, and the Amazon will prove to be an important source of research, as well as an invaluable case study, for anthropologists, ichthyologists, and geographers.

The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (16211678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. A noted civil servant under Cromwells Protectorate, he has been variously identified as a patriot, spy, conspirator, concealed homosexual, father to the liberal tradition, and incendiary satirical pamphleteer and freethinker. But while Marvells poetry and prose has attracted a wide modern following, his prose is known only to specialists, and much of his personal life remains shrouded in mystery.Nigel Smiths pivotal biography provides an unparalleled look into Marvells life, from his early employment as a tutor and gentlemans companion to his suspicious death, reputedly a politically fueled poisoning. Drawing on exhaustive archival research, the voluminous corpus of Marvells previously little known writing, and recent scholarship across several disciplines, Smiths portrait becomes the definitive account of this elusive life.

Little known as a poet in his own time, Andrew Marvell (1621-78) was a patriotic politician and champion of religious toleration during the Restoration. This book presents his poetry, accompanied by annotations giving a record of literary, philosophical and theological analogues and allusions. It also addresses the local points of interpretation.