Introduction

This introduction chapter presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book engages the attention of contemporary writers. Raymond Williams opened The Country and the City by asserting that Country and city are very powerful words, and this is not surprising when we remember how much they seem to stand for in the experience of human communities. The book demonstrates that the effects of change and population movement are neither simple nor monochrome: the accounts of anxiety, insecurity, estrangement and loss must be set against the solutions and compromises that were sometimes reached to enable life to continue in new circumstances. The book distinctive focuses for thinking about rural urban relationships, and It draws on a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including social, cultural and political history, literary studies, criminology, book history and demographics, to inform their arguments.