Gregory A Barton
Biographic Data
| ID | 5905932 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gregory A Barton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gregory A |
| FAMILY NAME | Barton |
| SIGNATURE | BARTON G A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Sydney University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
From the ground up
This article establishes the organic farming contribution to the health food movement.While the health food movement began before organic farming, by the 1930s and 1940s advocates of rural revival and neo-traditional agriculture adopted organic protocols with enthusiasm.The health food movement arose largely in the Anglo world and in time spread to many areas of the globe.Health food stores came, by the 1950s, to be seen as the natural home for p…
Teaching and Researching the World in South Africa
This reflective article offers an argument for the importance of making international connections for historical research regardless of where one is based.For students in South Africa to gain further knowledge of the world, universities in the field of history need to offer global coverage in subject offerings and research strengths.The National Research Foundation in South Africa offers tremendous help in this regard through research funding cal…
Temporality, Space, and Networks in Indo-Pacific Environmental Histories
This special issue of Pacific Historical Review, “Crossroads of Indo-Pacific Environmental Histories,” is guest edited by Gregory A. Barton and Brett M. Bennett. The special issue explores how environmental historians can use the concept of the Indo-Pacific to understand both the deep and contemporary histories of regions that are frequently viewed through Indian Ocean world or Pacific Ocean world perspectives. A preface and this introduction pro…
Decolonizing Informal Empire
This article traces the decolonization of Britain’s informal empire over the teak trade in Thailand in the mid-twentieth century. It argues that British influence over the teak industry, which dated to the second half of the nineteenth century, began to wane in the 1920s due to the gradual nationalization of teak leases. Still, British firms and the Foreign Office remained dominant in the export industry in the 1920s and 1930s because of Britain’…
The Global History of Organic Farming
Organic farming is a major global movement that is changing land use and consumer habits around the world. This book tells the untold story of how the organic farming movement nearly faltered after an initial flurry of scientific interest and popular support. Drawing on newly unearthed archives, Barton argues that organic farming first gained popularity in an imperial milieu before shifting to the left of the political spectrum after decolonizati…
To the Empire and Beyond
This chapter traces the expansion of industrial agricultural methods after the Second World War. Western governments and the Food and Agriculture Organization pushed for increased use of chemical fertilizers to aid development and resist Soviet encroachment. Meanwhile small groups of organic farmers and gardeners adopted Howard’s methods in the Anglo-sphere and elsewhere in the world. European movements paralleled these efforts and absorbed the b…
The Myth of the Peasant in the Global Organic Farming Movement
Organic farming activists have promoted the idea that ancient peasant wisdom informed the basic principles or Albert Howard’s Indore method, and of organic farming generally. The myth of the peasant origins of organic farming has influenced environmental activists and historians alike and concealed the remarkable contributions of Albert Howard and his first and second wives, Gabrielle and Louise Howard. A few statements made by Howard himself, an…
Informal Empire and the Americas
While Britain battled much of the world for an informal empire it engaged in a remarkably explicit competition with the United States, particularly over Central and South America. Intensifying after the War of 1812 the Americans in particular felt the competition keenly. It did not end until the United States established undisputed hegemony over the elites of the former colonies of Britain and most other European former colonies, including Britai…
The Idea of Informal Empire
The idea of informal empire is largely about the rationalization of the world and the responses that rationalization has produced. As this chapter illustrates, scholars, politicians, public intellectuals and others have handled with dexterity the idea of informal empire while never using the term or, in many cases, while utilizing a variety of terms or phrases to describe the same concept. It seemed inevitably bound up with the process of the Eur…
Informal Empire and Africa
The lines between formal and informal empire in nineteenth-century Africa were abstract, even wistful. While maps were often inaccurate and overlapping zones of influence impossible to trace, trade nonetheless radiated from the coasts deep into the interior and played a decisive role in the transformation and modernization of Africa. When Europeans first began to trade on the coastal cities, and as penetration moved steadily inland up the shallow…
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain's Vision of Forest Modernity
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain (1883–1970) developed a unique idea about the importance of forests, advocating the creation of a new society based upon forests, and he pursued policies to implement his unique vision of forestry when he served as the Director of Queensland's Forestry Board from 1918 to 1924 and the Forestry Commissioner for New South Wales from 1935 to 1948. Swain's beliefs developed out of a combination of his Australian experiences…
‘There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods’
Environmentalism, Development and British Policy in the Middle East 1945–65
Britain attempted to create an informal empire in the Middle East and used the British Middle East Office to sponsor development work precisely to attain a significant influence in the region, one that would salvage a fair share of rapidly declining imperial power. Environmental initiatives, many of them focusing on forestry, composed a key element of this programme. However an informal empire did not ensue. This led the Foreign Office, and many …
Forestry as Foreign Policy
Nineteenth-century Europeans visiting Southeast and South Asia eulogised teak trees ( Tectona grandis ) for their value and beauty. Diplomatic diaries, travel memoirs, literary descriptions and geography books for children described the teak as a universal sovereign of the sylvan world, the regal “lord” of the forests. With dwindling supplies of oak in Britain, British elites saw teak as a vital component of the country's global naval supremacy i…
Abolishing the East
Historians have tangled with two difficult conceptualizations of Hinduism. One is the use of the term Hinduism, and the other, the relation between environmental ethics and Hinduism. One posits a “merry India” that is diverse, tolerant, and amorphous, impossible to pin down, define, or solidify into a single entity. The other accepts the term Hinduism and ascribes to it a battery of impressive environmental ethics that stand as a model for the We…
Environmental Conservation and Deforestation in British India 1855–1947
The history of forestry in British India has evoked a wide range of responses from environmental historians. Debates often centre in particular on the ethic of the bureaucratic organisation responsible for managing the government-controlled forests of India: the Indian Forest Service. Born on the subcontinent and rooted in the European scientific tradition, the Indian Forest Service model, or “empire forestry” as it came to be called from the 192…
Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
What we now know of as environmentalism began with the establishment of the first empire forest in 1855 in British India, and during the second half of the nineteenth century, over ten per cent of the land surface of the earth became protected as a public trust. Sprawling forest reservations, many of them larger than modern nations, became revenue-producing forests that protected the whole 'household of nature', and Rudyard Kipling and Theodore R…
Sir Albert Howard and the Forestry Roots of the Organic Farming Movement
Le mouvement ecologiste a connu deux phases distinctes, avant et apres la seconde guerre mondiale. La premiere phase montrait un interet particulier pour la preservation des forets, alors que la seconde s'attaquait plus precisement a la pollution et a la sante. C'est dans ce contexte qu'est ne un autre mouvement, qui assurait la promotion de la nourriture biologique, mouvement lui-meme influence par les concepts de l'agriculture biologique develo…
Keepers of the Jungle
Keepers of the Jungle
(2000). Keepers of the Jungle: Environmental Management in British India, 1855–1900. The Historian: Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 557-574
Empire Forestry and American Environmentalism
This article examines the influence of empire forestry on the environmental movement in the United States. It particularly examines the British Indian forestry exemplar, and traces its influence on environmental thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Three central American foresters, Franklin B. Hough, Charles Sargent and Gifford Pinchot, are examined to illustrate the link between empire forestry and the massive forest rese…
Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
What we now know of as environmentalism began with the establishment of the first empire forest in 1855 in British India, and during the second half of the nineteenth century, over ten per cent of the land surface of the earth became protected as a public trust. Sprawling forest reservations, many of them larger than modern nations, became revenue-producing forests that protected the whole 'household of nature', and Rudyard Kipling and Theodore R…
Sir Albert Howard and the Forestry Roots of the Organic Farming Movement
Le mouvement ecologiste a connu deux phases distinctes, avant et apres la seconde guerre mondiale. La premiere phase montrait un interet particulier pour la preservation des forets, alors que la seconde s'attaquait plus precisement a la pollution et a la sante. C'est dans ce contexte qu'est ne un autre mouvement, qui assurait la promotion de la nourriture biologique, mouvement lui-meme influence par les concepts de l'agriculture biologique develo…
Forestry as Foreign Policy
Nineteenth-century Europeans visiting Southeast and South Asia eulogised teak trees ( Tectona grandis ) for their value and beauty. Diplomatic diaries, travel memoirs, literary descriptions and geography books for children described the teak as a universal sovereign of the sylvan world, the regal “lord” of the forests. With dwindling supplies of oak in Britain, British elites saw teak as a vital component of the country's global naval supremacy i…
Environmental Conservation and Deforestation in British India 1855–1947
The history of forestry in British India has evoked a wide range of responses from environmental historians. Debates often centre in particular on the ethic of the bureaucratic organisation responsible for managing the government-controlled forests of India: the Indian Forest Service. Born on the subcontinent and rooted in the European scientific tradition, the Indian Forest Service model, or “empire forestry” as it came to be called from the 192…
The Myth of the Peasant in the Global Organic Farming Movement
Organic farming activists have promoted the idea that ancient peasant wisdom informed the basic principles or Albert Howard’s Indore method, and of organic farming generally. The myth of the peasant origins of organic farming has influenced environmental activists and historians alike and concealed the remarkable contributions of Albert Howard and his first and second wives, Gabrielle and Louise Howard. A few statements made by Howard himself, an…
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain's Vision of Forest Modernity
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain (1883–1970) developed a unique idea about the importance of forests, advocating the creation of a new society based upon forests, and he pursued policies to implement his unique vision of forestry when he served as the Director of Queensland's Forestry Board from 1918 to 1924 and the Forestry Commissioner for New South Wales from 1935 to 1948. Swain's beliefs developed out of a combination of his Australian experiences…
Abolishing the East
Historians have tangled with two difficult conceptualizations of Hinduism. One is the use of the term Hinduism, and the other, the relation between environmental ethics and Hinduism. One posits a “merry India” that is diverse, tolerant, and amorphous, impossible to pin down, define, or solidify into a single entity. The other accepts the term Hinduism and ascribes to it a battery of impressive environmental ethics that stand as a model for the We…
Empire Forestry and American Environmentalism
This article examines the influence of empire forestry on the environmental movement in the United States. It particularly examines the British Indian forestry exemplar, and traces its influence on environmental thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Three central American foresters, Franklin B. Hough, Charles Sargent and Gifford Pinchot, are examined to illustrate the link between empire forestry and the massive forest rese…
Keepers of the Jungle
Keepers of the Jungle
(2000). Keepers of the Jungle: Environmental Management in British India, 1855–1900. The Historian: Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 557-574
Empire Forestry and American Environmentalism
This article examines the influence of empire forestry on the environmental movement in the United States. It particularly examines the British Indian forestry exemplar, and traces its influence on environmental thinking in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Three central American foresters, Franklin B. Hough, Charles Sargent and Gifford Pinchot, are examined to illustrate the link between empire forestry and the massive forest rese…
Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
What we now know of as environmentalism began with the establishment of the first empire forest in 1855 in British India, and during the second half of the nineteenth century, over ten per cent of the land surface of the earth became protected as a public trust. Sprawling forest reservations, many of them larger than modern nations, became revenue-producing forests that protected the whole 'household of nature', and Rudyard Kipling and Theodore R…
Sir Albert Howard and the Forestry Roots of the Organic Farming Movement
Le mouvement ecologiste a connu deux phases distinctes, avant et apres la seconde guerre mondiale. La premiere phase montrait un interet particulier pour la preservation des forets, alors que la seconde s'attaquait plus precisement a la pollution et a la sante. C'est dans ce contexte qu'est ne un autre mouvement, qui assurait la promotion de la nourriture biologique, mouvement lui-meme influence par les concepts de l'agriculture biologique develo…
Environmental Conservation and Deforestation in British India 1855–1947
The history of forestry in British India has evoked a wide range of responses from environmental historians. Debates often centre in particular on the ethic of the bureaucratic organisation responsible for managing the government-controlled forests of India: the Indian Forest Service. Born on the subcontinent and rooted in the European scientific tradition, the Indian Forest Service model, or “empire forestry” as it came to be called from the 192…
Abolishing the East
Historians have tangled with two difficult conceptualizations of Hinduism. One is the use of the term Hinduism, and the other, the relation between environmental ethics and Hinduism. One posits a “merry India” that is diverse, tolerant, and amorphous, impossible to pin down, define, or solidify into a single entity. The other accepts the term Hinduism and ascribes to it a battery of impressive environmental ethics that stand as a model for the We…
‘There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods’
Environmentalism, Development and British Policy in the Middle East 1945–65
Britain attempted to create an informal empire in the Middle East and used the British Middle East Office to sponsor development work precisely to attain a significant influence in the region, one that would salvage a fair share of rapidly declining imperial power. Environmental initiatives, many of them focusing on forestry, composed a key element of this programme. However an informal empire did not ensue. This led the Foreign Office, and many …
Forestry as Foreign Policy
Nineteenth-century Europeans visiting Southeast and South Asia eulogised teak trees ( Tectona grandis ) for their value and beauty. Diplomatic diaries, travel memoirs, literary descriptions and geography books for children described the teak as a universal sovereign of the sylvan world, the regal “lord” of the forests. With dwindling supplies of oak in Britain, British elites saw teak as a vital component of the country's global naval supremacy i…
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain's Vision of Forest Modernity
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain (1883–1970) developed a unique idea about the importance of forests, advocating the creation of a new society based upon forests, and he pursued policies to implement his unique vision of forestry when he served as the Director of Queensland's Forestry Board from 1918 to 1924 and the Forestry Commissioner for New South Wales from 1935 to 1948. Swain's beliefs developed out of a combination of his Australian experiences…
Informal Empire and the Americas
While Britain battled much of the world for an informal empire it engaged in a remarkably explicit competition with the United States, particularly over Central and South America. Intensifying after the War of 1812 the Americans in particular felt the competition keenly. It did not end until the United States established undisputed hegemony over the elites of the former colonies of Britain and most other European former colonies, including Britai…
The Idea of Informal Empire
The idea of informal empire is largely about the rationalization of the world and the responses that rationalization has produced. As this chapter illustrates, scholars, politicians, public intellectuals and others have handled with dexterity the idea of informal empire while never using the term or, in many cases, while utilizing a variety of terms or phrases to describe the same concept. It seemed inevitably bound up with the process of the Eur…
Informal Empire and Africa
The lines between formal and informal empire in nineteenth-century Africa were abstract, even wistful. While maps were often inaccurate and overlapping zones of influence impossible to trace, trade nonetheless radiated from the coasts deep into the interior and played a decisive role in the transformation and modernization of Africa. When Europeans first began to trade on the coastal cities, and as penetration moved steadily inland up the shallow…
The Myth of the Peasant in the Global Organic Farming Movement
Organic farming activists have promoted the idea that ancient peasant wisdom informed the basic principles or Albert Howard’s Indore method, and of organic farming generally. The myth of the peasant origins of organic farming has influenced environmental activists and historians alike and concealed the remarkable contributions of Albert Howard and his first and second wives, Gabrielle and Louise Howard. A few statements made by Howard himself, an…
The Global History of Organic Farming
Organic farming is a major global movement that is changing land use and consumer habits around the world. This book tells the untold story of how the organic farming movement nearly faltered after an initial flurry of scientific interest and popular support. Drawing on newly unearthed archives, Barton argues that organic farming first gained popularity in an imperial milieu before shifting to the left of the political spectrum after decolonizati…
To the Empire and Beyond
This chapter traces the expansion of industrial agricultural methods after the Second World War. Western governments and the Food and Agriculture Organization pushed for increased use of chemical fertilizers to aid development and resist Soviet encroachment. Meanwhile small groups of organic farmers and gardeners adopted Howard’s methods in the Anglo-sphere and elsewhere in the world. European movements paralleled these efforts and absorbed the b…
Temporality, Space, and Networks in Indo-Pacific Environmental Histories
This special issue of Pacific Historical Review, “Crossroads of Indo-Pacific Environmental Histories,” is guest edited by Gregory A. Barton and Brett M. Bennett. The special issue explores how environmental historians can use the concept of the Indo-Pacific to understand both the deep and contemporary histories of regions that are frequently viewed through Indian Ocean world or Pacific Ocean world perspectives. A preface and this introduction pro…
Decolonizing Informal Empire
This article traces the decolonization of Britain’s informal empire over the teak trade in Thailand in the mid-twentieth century. It argues that British influence over the teak industry, which dated to the second half of the nineteenth century, began to wane in the 1920s due to the gradual nationalization of teak leases. Still, British firms and the Foreign Office remained dominant in the export industry in the 1920s and 1930s because of Britain’…
Teaching and Researching the World in South Africa
This reflective article offers an argument for the importance of making international connections for historical research regardless of where one is based.For students in South Africa to gain further knowledge of the world, universities in the field of history need to offer global coverage in subject offerings and research strengths.The National Research Foundation in South Africa offers tremendous help in this regard through research funding cal…
From the ground up
This article establishes the organic farming contribution to the health food movement.While the health food movement began before organic farming, by the 1930s and 1940s advocates of rural revival and neo-traditional agriculture adopted organic protocols with enthusiasm.The health food movement arose largely in the Anglo world and in time spread to many areas of the globe.Health food stores came, by the 1950s, to be seen as the natural home for p…
History (16 works) · Political science (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · History (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Empire (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Economics (8 works)