ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 discusses the way in which the ‘land question’ in England has been interpreted by historians and other academics up to the present day. It seeks to restore a general discussion of land reform to a more central place in English history and contemporary political debate. It reviews how the meaning of landed property has changed during the course of the twentieth century and how it has become an important aspect of the ideology supporting a property-owning democracy with important implications for land reform. The chapter discusses how historians have understood the development of land reform in England during the twentieth century, noting how they have tended to neglect the broader question of the role of land in society in the light of the remarkable spread of owner-occupation and the relative decline of the political influence of the landed aristocracy. It identifies a number of new approaches being undertaken by historians, economists and town planners, who have started to widen our understanding of land reform in the context of the current housing crisis and the financial crash of 2008.
