Edward Hyams: Ecology and Politics 'Under the Vine'. (1st February 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Smith, Mick
• Is Part Of: Environmental values. Volume 20:Number 1(2011:Spring)
• Page Start: 95
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2011-02-01
• Subjects: Edward Hyams -- ecological politics -- progress -- historicism -- organic agriculture; Environmental ethics -- Periodicals; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; 179.105
• DOI: 10.3197/096327111X12922350166111
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-2719

Abstract

Abstract : This paper offers an assessment of the agricultural eco-politics of Edward Hyams (1910-75), novelist, gardener, historian, broadcaster and anarchist. It focuses in particular on his collaboration with the conservative writer on rural England, and founding member of the Soil Association, H.J. Massingham which resulted in a book, Prophecy of Famine (1953) - a fundamental critique of the effects of industrial capitalism on farming and a call for agricultural self-sufficiency and soil conservation. This collaboration between two writers with very different political views raises important questions about the nature of eco-politics and whether its critique of the dominant ideology of 'progress' (at least in its historicist forms) can still constitute a radical 'progressive' politics. Hyams' writings, and his differences from Massingham, particularly over the issue of private ownership of land, are illustrative of this apparent tension.