Farming Communities in the Western Alps, 1500–1914: The Enduring Bond (Historical Geography and Geosciences)

This monograph explores traditional farming communities in French-speaking areas of the western Alps for the period 1500-1914 and how they endured in such an environment despite the many problems and risks which it posed for their subsistence and welfare. Using an extensive amount of archival material drawn from the relevant regional archives, the book presents a great deal of fresh data. Its central theme is how such communities responded to the opportunities and challenges presented by the highly variegated environment of their setting. The view taken is that their strategies of exploitation stressed diversity and flexibility, mapping the highly varied ecologies and resource opportunities of their setting into these strategies by spreading livelihood and risk as widely as possible. This interpretative framework is developed across all the book's themes: landholding, arable and livestock sectors, use of the commons and, finally, how communities coped with climate-based risks. The book appeals to geographers, historians, environmental scientists and everyone interested in traditional farming communities and their long-term challenges. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Traditional Alpine Communities and the Challenge of Long-Term Sustainability (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 1-8 The Landholding Basis of Alpine Farming (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 9-31 Face to the Sun: The Exploitation of Arable (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 33-58 The Ties that Bind: Livestock Farming in the Western Alps, 1500–1914 (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 59-88 The Alps and Their Common Property Rights: Resource, Regulation and Exploitation 1500–1914 (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 89-105 The Alpage of the Western Alps, 1500–1914: Europe’s Highest Cultural Landscape (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 107-127 Coping with Risk, 1500–1914 (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 129-150 Epilogue (Robert Dodgshon)....Pages 151-154 Back Matter ....Pages 155-168