Book excerpt: First published in 1984, Hugh Clout’s work contributes to one of the most debated and important topics of the time, the European Economic Community. Starting from the Mid-20th century, Clout explains the profound socio-economic and environmental changes that effected the countryside of Western Europe. This work shows how the EEC’s wide-ranging Common Agricultural Policy added a measure of uniformity to farm policies. Clout reveals that the transformation however was not an entirely healthy one. The broad process of agricultural modernisation reinforced the numerical decline of farm workers throughout Western Europe, weakened many rural communities, and served to accentuate depopulation. Clout’s work ultimately argues forcibly that to produce such a programme for managing rural Europe would be a major challenge for the EEC in the future.