John L. Langdon (December 24, 1944 – December 31, 2016)John Langdon
''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'' (January 30, 2017) was a British-born Canadian economic and social historian of medieval England.

Career

Langdon undertook his doctoral work at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, UK under the supervision of Christopher Dyer. He worked at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, 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 Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1986) and
Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540
' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 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 Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an uni ...

, 1997). With Richard Goddard and Miriam Müller he edited a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for Professor Christopher Dyer: ''Survival and Discord in Medieval Society, Essays in Honour of Christopher Dyer''. Together with Maryanne Kowaleski and

Phillipp R. Schofield Phillipp Richard Schofield is a medieval historian and a professor in Aberystwyth University's Department of History and Welsh History. Career Schofield graduated from University College London in 1986, with a BA in ancient and medieval histo ...

he edited a festschrift for Professor

Bruce Campbell Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' franchise, beginning with the 1978 short film ''Within the Woods''. He has starred in many low ...

: ''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

Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066–1500
'
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

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langdon, John 1944 births 2016 deaths Alumni of the University of Birmingham Academic staff of the University of Alberta 20th-century British historians 20th-century Canadian historians Social historians Economic historians Historians of technology British emigrants to Canada 21st-century Canadian historians