1st Edition
Rolf Gardiner: Folk, Nature and Culture in Interwar Britain
202 Pages
by
Routledge
202 Pages
by
Routledge
202 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Folk dancer, forester, poet and visionary, Rolf Gardiner (1902-71) is both a compelling and troubling figure in the history of twentieth-century Britain. While he is celebrated as a pioneer of organic farming and co-founder of the Soil Association, Gardiner's organicist outlook was not confined to agriculture alone. Convinced that a healthy culture and society could only flourish when it was... Read more
Introduction, Matthew Jefferies, Mike Tyldesley; Chapter 1 Rolf Gardiner: Pioneer of British Youth Culture, 1920-1939, David Fowler; Chapter 2 Rolf Gardiner and German Naturism, Matthew Jefferies; Chapter 3 'Potencies of the earth': Rolf Gardiner and the English Folk Dance Revival, Georgina Boyes; Chapter 4 Rolf Gardiner, Farming and the English Landscape, Richard Moore-Colyer; Chapter 5 Rolf Gardiner and Pacifism: The Case of Max Plowman, Mike Tyldesley; Chapter 6 The Dangers of Definition: Post-Facto Opinions on Rolf Gardiner's Attitudes towards Nazi Germany; Chapter 7 Rolf Gardiner: An Honorary Nazi?, Dan Stone; Chapter 8 Epilogue, Matthew Jefferies, Mike Tyldesley;
Biography
Matthew Jefferies is Professor of German History at the University of Manchester and has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth-century German history. Mike Tyldesley is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University. His book No Heavenly Delusion? (Liverpool University Press, 2003) is a study of three contemporary movements of communal living with roots in the German Youth Movement.
'The contributors are outstanding scholars in their fields, and are conspicuously fair-minded in their approach to Gardiner, a man who aroused both powerful admiration and dislike in those who knew him: sometimes in the same person. The book conveys a strong sense of Gardiner's complex character, but also situates him in a wider political and cultural context, helping to broaden our understanding of the interwar period.' Philip Conford, author of The Origins of the Organic Movement 'Alternately revered as a pioneer of eco-friendly agriculture or reviled as a pro-Nazi crank, Rolf Gardiner stood at the centre of a range of social movements - youth culture, folk dance, naturism, organic farming - that gained strength in Britain and Germany during the interwar years and continue to resonate in our society today. A balanced evaluation of his influence is well overdue, and in this book, Matthew Jefferies and Mike Tyldesley have put together an intelligent and important collection of essays by some of the most significant scholars in the field to shed light on these issues. As a result of these efforts, a better nuanced understanding of Gardiner's work and its internal tensions is at last made possible.' Piers H.G. Stephens, University of Georgia, USA 'This is a significant book. It is a fair- and open-minded attempt to make sense of a figure who continues to defy easy categorization, and it has much to offer cultural, political, and rural historians, regardless of whether or not they have previously been aware of Rolf Gardiner.' Twentieth Century British History 'There is a great deal of fascinating material, concrete facts as well as the authors’ opinions. Even those who care only about Gardiner’s role in the folk revival would be well advised to study all the chapters. I highly recommend Griffiths’s short interpretative essay, as well as the in-depth, data-based studies, particularly those by Fowler and Jefferies. The authors are to be particularly commended
