Alex Brown
Recession and Recovery in the North-East, 1400-1640
PhD Research
Alex Brown specialises in the economic and social history of rural society in the late medieval and early modern periods. His PhD explores how rural society reacted to the recession of the fifteenth century and how this affected their ability to adapt to the different problems posed by inflation in the sixteenth century. This focuses upon the economic development of the two major ecclesiastical landowners in Durham, exploring their changing relationships with their tenants, and involves further studies of the composition of lay landownership and the take-off of the coal industry. The primary aim is to explore the development of agrarian capitalism in the Durham countryside: a region uniquely characterised by a high concentration of ecclesiastical landownership and the precocious development of large-scale coal production.
Research interests:
- The economic and social history of pre-industrial England
- Transformations of rural society
- The development of agrarian capitalism
- The ‘great divide’ between medieval and early-modern specialisms
Publications
A.T. Brown, 'Surviving the Mid-Fifteenth-Century Recession: Durham Cathedral Priory, 1400-1520', Northern History, 47 (2010), 209-231.
A. T. Brown, ‘The Families Behind the Worm Tales: the Conyers and Lambtons, 1350-1640', Cleveland History, 100 (2011), pp. 99-110.
A. T. Brown, ‘Changing Fortunes During the Fifteenth Century Recession’, Symeon, II (2012), pp. 11-16
A. T. Brown, review of Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death: Essays in Honour of John Hatcher, for the Institute of Historical Research’s Reviews in History (2012)
A. T. Brown, ‘Church Leaseholders on the Dean and Chapter's Estates, 1540-1640: The Rise of a Rural Elite?', in A. G. Green and B. Crosbie (eds.), The Economy and Culture of North-East England, c.1500-1800 (forthcoming, 2013)
Awards and Prizes
ESRC 1+3 Scholarship Award for MA and PhD, October 2008-September 2012
New Researcher Prize at the Economic History Society Annual Conference (Oxford, 2012)
EHS Postan Fellowship, administered by the Institute of Historical Research, 2012-13
Source: The Rothamsted Experiment Station
Research Papers
- ‘Recession and Recovery: Ecclesiastical Estates and their Tenants in Durham', University of Teesside Centre for Regional and Local Historical Research, March 2011
- ‘Elizabethan Intervention and The Economic Decline of the Bishops of Durham, 1540-1640', Durham Early Modern History Postgraduate Conference with Professor Bill Sheils as Commentator, May 2011
- ‘Responding to Recession: Intensification and Diversification by Two Northern Landowners, c.1400-1540', Economic History Society Manchester Residential, December 2011
- ‘Church Leaseholders on the Dean and Chapter's Estates, 1540-1640: The Rise of a Rural Elite?', Day Conference with Professor Pat Hudson as Chair, Durham University, January 2012
- ‘Divergent Responses to Recession: Ecclesiastical Estates in Durham, c.1400-c.1600', Economic History Society Conference, Oxford, March 2012 (New Researcher's Session)
- ‘The Decline of the Peasantry: Cultural Change and Rural Economic Development, 1300-1650', Medieval and Early Modern Student Association Annual Conference, Durham, July 2012
- ‘The Depth and Severity of the Fifteenth-Century Recession in a Regional Context: the North-East of England', The Fifteenth Century Conference, Winchester, September 2012
- ‘The Mechanisms of Change in Pre-Industrial Economies: Decision-Making and Path Dependency’, Institute of Historical Research, February 2013 (forthcoming)
- ‘Estate Management and the Transformation of the Rural Economy in the North of England, 1400-1640’, Medieval Economic and Social History Talks, University of Cambridge, March 2013 (forthcoming)
Teaching
2011-12: New Heaven, New Earth: Latin Christendom and the World, 1000-1300
2012-13: Robin Hood
Other projects
July 2013: Co-organiser of 'Coping with Crisis' Durham conference (with Rob Doherty and Andy Burn)
