6 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH RURAL HISTORY 



organizations and other channels, enlarging its interests 

 and widening its outlook, and it is important that country 

 men and women should be helped to fortify themselves 

 for their new activities with knowledge. The purpose of 

 this little book is to introduce the people of the country- 

 side to the history of rural life, and to create in- the minds 

 of the workers a desire to understand more fully the 

 past and the present. A knowledge of rural history is 

 indispensable to a grasp of the problems of to-day. The 

 great problem, so far as the agricultural and rural workers 

 are concerned, is the re-creation of rural society on a basis 

 of political and economic democracy. To the solution 

 of this problem the country dwellers must bend their 

 energies. The first step, however, is through education, 

 and Mr. Guest's little volume will have amply fulfilled its 

 purpose if it sets its readers upon the pathway to know- 

 ledge, and generates an enthusiasm for a new and better 

 Britain. 



ARTHUR GREENWOOD. 



