This revealing new addition to Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography presents some of the first researches into a trove of hitherto inaccessible primary source material. A controversial component of Lloyd George's People's Budget of 1909–10 was the 'New Domesday' of landownership and land values. This rich documentation, for long locked away in the Inland Revenue's offices, became available to the public in the late 1970s. For the growing number of scholars of early twentieth century urban and rural Britain, Dr Short offers both a coherent overview and a standard source of reference to this valuable archive. Part I is concerned with the processes of assembling the material and its style of representation; Part II with suggested themes and locality studies. A final chapter places this new material in the context of discourses of state intervention in landed society prior to the Great War.

Preface; 1. An introduction; Part I. Processes and Representations: 2. Lloyd George, the 1909 Budget and the land campaign; 3. The national structure of the valuation process; 4. The survey procedures and documents; 5. The 1910 documents and archival policies; Part II. Themes and Locality Studies: 6. Projects and problems; 7. Urban social area analysis 1909-14; 8. Rural society and economy 1909-14; 9. Rural industrial communities on the eve of the Great War; 10. Contrasts and comparisons; 11. The survey in Ireland; 12. The survey in Scotland; 13. A discourse of state power 1909-14; Bibliography; Appendices.