Book excerpt: First published in 1977. Essentially an economic history with strong emphasis on human factors, this title examines the reasons for the backwardness of much of the farming of Wales and discusses in detail how agricultural resources and organisation directly affected the nature of social relationships within the community. This study will be of central importance to students of the history of Wales. It should appeal equally to those interested in the economic history of late modern Britain; students of nineteenth-century British Agriculture and the rural community; historical geographers; and all those concerned with peasants and peasant societies.