Campbell, Bruce M.S. 1949-

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Campbell, Bruce M.S. 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born June 11, 1949, in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England. Education: Liverpool University, B.A., 1970; Darwin College, Cambridge University, Ph.D., 1975. Hobbies and other interests: Newfoundland dogs, opera, and travel.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Geography, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom; Fax: +44 (0)2890 972180. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, geographer, and writer. Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, lecturer in geography, 1973-89, lecturer in economic and social history, 1989-92, reader in economic and social history, 1992-95, professor of medieval economics, 1995—. Also scholar in residence, Centre of East Anglican Studies, University of East Anglia, 1985; appointed to the advisory board of the Discovery Programme's (Ar Thóir Na Sean) research initiative, "Medieval Rural Settlement Project," 2001-07, and to the Scientific Committee of the Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato, Italy, 2003.

MEMBER:

Royal History Society (fellow), Scientific Commission, International Institute for Economic History, Royal Irish Academy.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Percy Maude Roxby Prize, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, 1969; Roxby Memorial Prize and Humboldt Prize, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, 1970; Arthur H. Cole Prize, Economic History Association, 1984, for "the outstanding article published in the Journal of Economic History in the September 1983 through June 1984 issues."

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with M. Overton) Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 1991.

(With G.A. Galloway, D.J. Keene, and M. Murphy) A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply: Agrarian Production and Distribution in the London Region, Institute of British Geographers (London, England), 1995.

(Editor and contributor, with R.H. Britnell) A Commercialising Economy: England 1086-c. 1300, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 1995.

English Seigniorial Agriculture 1250-1450, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2000.

Also editor of Before the Black Death: Studies in the 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century, 1991. Contributor to professional journals; adviser to the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Economic History, Joel Mokyr, general editor, 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bruce M.S. Campbell is an historian whose primary interests include medieval society and economy. He is the author—with G.A. Galloway, D.J. Keene, and M. Murphy—of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply: Agrarian Production and Distribution in the London Region. Focusing on the period of 1290-1315, the authors discuss the growth of a medieval exchange economy and delve into the various markets that supported such an economy. A primary focus is on the large demand for grain that existed to feed the nearly 80,000 to 100,000 people who lived in London at the time. The authors explore how this demand influenced farming and commerce throughout ten surrounding counties.

In a review of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply in the Economic History Review, George Grantham wrote: "It would be difficult to identify a recent contribution to the study of the evolutionary dynamics of the medieval economy more promising than this report of a work in progress." David Ormrod, writing in the Journal of Urban History, noted: "Bruce Campbell and his coresearchers have shown that contrary to common assumptions, urban provisioning was a major activity long before the mid-Tudor period." English Historical Review contributor Barbara Harvey wrote: "Readers of [the book] will find in it … exciting subject-matter of a specific kind." She went on to call A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply "an important work, boldly conceived and stylishly executed: it will leave a mark on studies of England's urban and rural economies, land-use and agricultural systems for many years to come." In a review in Speculum, D.L. Farmer commented that "one looks forward to the promised sequel."

Campbell has also edited or coedited several historical studies, including Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity, which Campbell edited with M. Overton. The volume contains seventeen essays with contributions from professionals in the fields of economics, geography, archaeology, and soil science. Peter T. Hoffman commented in the Journal of Interdisciplinary History: "The chief virtue of this book is the light it sheds on new methodologies." E.L. Jones, writing in the Economic History Review, commented: "There is plenty of solid, painstaking research here."

Campbell and R.H. Britnell are coeditors of and contributors to A Commercialising Economy: England 1086-c. 1300. English Historical Review contributor Harvey noted that the book "persuasively [presents a case] for the central importance of the growth of the market in the period under consideration and for the influence which this process, though more or less complete in itself by 1300, exerted on the economy subsequently." As editor of Before the Black Death: Studies in the 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century, Campbell presents six essays focusing on "to what degree bubonic plague determined the course of late medieval history," as noted by Robert C. Figueira in the Historian. Christopher Dyer, writing in the English Historical Review, noted that the "essays show that the period saw developments of considerable long-term importance."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1995, Kathleen Biddick, review of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply: Agrarian Production and Distribution in the London Region, pp. 151-152.

Economic History Review, November, 1992, E.L. Jones, review of Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity, pp. 815-816; December, 1993, Patrick Dillon, review of Land, Labour and Livestock, pp. 931-932; August, 1995, George Grantham, review of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply, pp. 612-613; February, 1995, Joan Thirsk, review of Land, Labour and Livestock, pp. 272-273; September, 1996, John Langdon review of A Commercialising Economy: England 1086-c. 1300, pp. 709-710.

English Historical Review, September, 1994, Christopher Dyer, review of Before the Black Death: Studies in the 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century, p. 996; April, 1996, Barbara Harvey, review of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply, p. 427; June, 1997, Barbara F. Harvey, review of A Commercialising Economy, p. 704.

Historian, autumn, 1992, Robert C. Figueira, review of Before the Black Death, p. 110.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 1996, Peter T. Hoffman, review of Land, Labour and Livestock, p. 110.

Journal of Urban History, May, 1997, David Ormrod, review of Before the Black Death, p. 468.

Speculum, October, 1994, D.L. Farmer, review of A Medieval Capital and Its Grain Supply, p. 1135.