John L. Langdon (December 24, 1944 – December 31, 2016) was a British-born Canadian economic and social historian of medieval England.
Career
Langdon undertook his doctoral work at the University of Birmingham, UK under the supervision of Christopher Dyer. He worked at the University of Alberta, Canada (1984–2010), being appointed assistant professor of British medieval history in 1984. Beloved by his students, he ranked 4.6 out of 5 on RateMyProfessors.com.
He is best known for his contributions on medieval English technology, chiefly two monographs: Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066–1500 (Cambridge University Press, 1986) and Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540 (Oxford University Press, 2004).
He also co-edited a number of essay collections. With Grenville G. Astill, he edited Medieval Farming and Technology: The Impact of Agricultural Change in Northwest Europe (Brill, 1997). With Richard Goddard and Miriam Müller he edited a festschrift for Professor Christopher Dyer: Survival and Discord in Medieval Society, Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer. Together with Maryanne Kowaleski and Phillipp R. Schofield he edited a festschrift for Professor Bruce Campbell: Peasants and Lords in the Medieval English Economy: Essays in Honour of Bruce M.S. Campbell.
His research continued into his retirement, his last research project, "A war over water: The 1531 English Statue of Sewers and its impact upon local politics, economies and environments" commencing in 2013.
Selected works
Author
Books
Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540
Articles
Langdon, John. "The Economics of Horses and Oxen in Medieval England." The Agricultural History Review 30, no. 1 (1982): 31-40
Langdon, John. "Horse Hauling: A Revolution in Vehicle Transport in Twelfth and Thirteenth-century England?" Past and Present 103, no. 1 (1984): 37–66.
Langdon, John. "A Quiet Revolution - The Horse in Agriculture, 1100-1500." History Today 39, no. 7 (1989): 32.
Langdon, John. "Water-mills and Windmills in the West Midlands, 1086-1500." Economic History Review 44, no. 3 (1991): 424–45.
Langdon, John. "The Birth and Demise of a Medieval Windmill." History of Technology 14 (1992): 54–77.
Langdon, John. "Inland Water Transport in Medieval England." Journal of Historical Geography 19, no. 1 (1993): 1-11.
Langdon, John. "The Mobilization of Labour in the Milling Industry of Thirteenth- and Early Fourteenth-century England." Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes D'Histoire 31, no. 1 (1996): 37–58.
Langdon, John. "Inland Water Transport in Medieval England — the View from the Mills: A Response to Jones." Journal of Historical Geography 26, no. 1 (2000): 75–82.
Langdon, John., and Martin. Watts. "Tower Windmills in Medieval England: A Case of Arrested Development?" Technology and Culture 46, no. 4 (2005): 697–718.
Langdon, John, and James Masschaele. "Commercial Activity and Population Growth in Medieval England" Past & Present 190, no. 1 (2006): 35–81.
Tara Gale, John Langdon and Natalie Leishman “Piety and Political Accommodation in Norman England”, Haskins Society Journal, vol. 18 (2007), pp. 110–31.
Bailey, B. Gregory, Meaghan E Bernard, Gregory Carrier, Cherise L Elliott, John Langdon, Natalie Leishman, Michal Mlynarz, Oksana Mykhed, and Lindsay C Sidders. "Coming of Age and the Family in Medieval England." Journal of Family History 33, no. 1 (2008): 41–60.
Claridge, Jordan, and John Langdon. "Storage in Medieval England: The Evidence from Purveyance Accounts, 1295–13491." Economic History Review 64, no. 4 (2011): 1242–265.
Langdon, John, and Jordan Claridge. "Transport in Medieval England." History Compass 9, no. 11 (2011): 864–75.
Claridge, Jordan, and John Langdon. "The composition of famuli labour on English demesnes, c. 1300." Agricultural History Review 63, no. 2 (2015): 187–220.
Langdon, John and James White. "An Early Seventeenth-century River Environment: the 1618 Survey of the Itchen" Hampshire Studies Volume 72, Number 1, December 2017, pp. 142–165.
Editor
Medieval Farming and Technology: The Impact of Agricultural Change in Northwest Europe (With Grenville Astill)
Survival and Discord in Medieval Society, Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer
Peasants and Lords in the Medieval English Economy: Essays in Honour of Bruce M.S. Campbell
References
- ^ John Langdon Edmonton Journal (January 30, 2017)
- Langdon, John (1986). Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066-1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. xiii. ISBN 0-521-26772-2.
- University Staff (PDF), University of Alberta, archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2019, retrieved 8 April 2018
- University Staff, University of Alberta, retrieved 8 April 2018
- "John Langdon at University of Alberta - RateMyProfessors.com". www.ratemyprofessors.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
- Elaine Clark (1987), "Reviewed Work: Horses, Oxen, and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066-1500 by John Langdon", Agricultural History, 61 (4): 80–81, JSTOR 3743899
- Richard W. Unger (1988), "Reviewed Work: Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066-1500 by John Langdon", The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 19 (2): 307–08, doi:10.2307/204676, JSTOR 204676
- Robert S. Gottfried (1988), "Reviewed Work: Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066-1500 by John Langdon", Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 20 (1): 80–81, doi:10.2307/4049802, JSTOR 4049802
- Ben Dodds (2005), "Reviewed Work: Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540 by John Langdon", The Economic History Review, 58 (2): 408–09, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2005.00309_3.x, JSTOR 3698699
- Richard W. Unger (2005), "Reviewed Work: Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540 by John Langdon", Technology and Culture, 46 (3): 636–38, doi:10.1353/tech.2005.0155, JSTOR 40060918, S2CID 108574970
- James Davis (2006), "Reviewed Work: Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540 by John Langdon", The English Historical Review, 121 (490): 193–95, doi:10.1093/ehr/cej010, JSTOR 3806248
- Survival and Discord in Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer. Turnhout: Brepols. 2010. ISBN 978-2-503-52815-1.
- Peasants and Lords in the Medieval English Economy: Essays in Honour of Bruce M.S Campbell. Turnhout: Brepols. 2015. ISBN 978-2-503-55156-2.
- Forrest, Ian (24 August 2017). "Peasants and Lords in the Medieval English Economy: Essays in Honour of Bruce M.S. Campbell, ed. Maryanne Kowaleski, John Langdon and Phillipp R. Schofield". The English Historical Review. 132 (558): 1299–1301. doi:10.1093/ehr/cex220. ISSN 0013-8266.
- GAPSSHRC; Langdon, John (9 October 2012). "A war over water: The 1531 English Statue of Sewers and its impact upon local politics, economies and environments". ERA. doi:10.7939/R3FB4WX4N. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
External links
- Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066–1500, Cambridge University Press
- Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540, Oxford University Press