Agricultural History Review, Volume 63 Part 2 (2015), p. 325

The Battle of the Fields provides a wide-ranging, impressive critique of the role played by the state in transforming the agricultural sector during the crucially important and formative period of the Second World War. The central strand linking the chapters together is the actions of the County War Agricultural Executives Committees, which were responsible for implementing national directives at the local level. The book provides an informative critique of the origins and rationale for state involvement, as well as the Committee structure and how this reflected the hierarchical and class-ridden nature of rural society. It explores how these power relationships operated in practice, with regard to the system of dispossession. This is graphically illustrated in respect of the tragic case of Ray Walden, a small dairy farmer in Hampshire, who lost his life in the process. In addition it explores the social effects, differentiating between memory and fiction, including the inherent contradictions of the countryside at war. His investigation reveals how class consciousness and gender discrimination remained a recurring feature of the period.

The text provides a well-balanced evaluation of the Herculean challenges facing the state in transforming what was a tepid agricultural economy into a fully functioning productive sector. Even if these changes did not quite happen overnight, it is important to bear in mind that they took place in an incredibly short period of time when judged by previous periods of agrarian transformation. Short’s grasp of the significance and complexity of the key issues is unrivalled.

The author should be congratulated for his meticulous and comprehensive investigation of such a wide range of secondary and primary sources. The illustrations are particularly impressive and the dates and lists of the membership of the committees are unparalleled. Unlike most other accounts, the author provides a thorough and painstaking investigation into regional variations of the impact of wartime control, which encompasses not only fenland and coastal marshes but also a chapter on the impact of wartime control on Scotland and Northern Ireland.

There are, as with all books, a number of points that any reviewer might take issue with. These include the rather superficial treatment of the extent to which agricultural output and productivity increased during the Second World War. A sharper, more evaluative assessment could have been undertaken in respect of the extent to which the Committees’ achievements were primarily the result of their ability to bring about a structural realignment, with the switch from pastoral to arable farming. Criticism might also include the occasional dependence on rather excessively long quotations to advance the arguments. Other very minor points include the claims about the doubling of barley yields (p. 307) during the course of the war, and the citation of my own book, The Development of Modern Agriculture, as being printed by Manchester University Press in 1999, whereas it was Macmillan Palgrave in 2000. Such criticisms, however, are incredibly minor and do little, if anything, to distract from the quality of the analysis. The most important relevant criticism is the cost of the book, which is only available as a hardback for £75 and this will invariably limit its market.

This well-researched book will be essential reading not only for academics from a wide range of disciplines, but also appeal to those with an interest in the countryside. Short’s efforts in producing a book of this level of analysis, supported by meticulous detail, deserve unstinting commendation and praise. If this was a farm being scrutinized by a member of the War Ag, as Short himself did in BBC’s Wartime Farm series, it would certainly merit an outstanding ‘A’ grade.