| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

John Landers. The Field and the Forge: Population, Production, and Power in the Pre-industrial West. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. Pp. xiii, 440.

Reading this book is somewhat like flying over a familiar landscape for the first time: features that one scarcely noticed at ground level suddenly reveal unexpected patterns when seen from above. John Landers employs the longue durée approach to examine the ways in which the reliance on an "organic economy" shaped the structures of Western society from prehistory until the early twentieth century. An organic economy is characterized by dependence on plants (and, secondarily, animals) as the main sources of energy and raw materials. The few industries that utilize inorganic raw materials (e.g. metallurgy, ceramics) are limited in their production capacity by the use of wood as fuel. For Landers, the heart of the industrial revolution was the transformation of energy inputs and raw materials from organic sources to minerals and chemicals. This shift fundamentally changed productivity levels, with far-reaching consequences for human society. Landers's book is concerned primarily with the preindustrial West rather than the "mineral economy" of the industrial revolution itself. He does, however, look in some detail at warfare in the transitional period during which the technology of violence had shifted to chemical energy (gunpowder), yet organic energy sources still defined the parameters for transportation, communications, and the economic underpinnings of military activity.

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