British isles : a geographic and economic survey

The death of Sir Dudley Stamp in 1966 deprived this book of its senior author and certainly delayed the production of this sixth edition. The writing of economic geography becomes increasingly difficult in this age of rapidly changing technology and fluctuating economic progress, and when in addition nearly two years may elapse between the completion of a revision and its publication the task of keeping a book up-to-date is almost impossible. So much has happened in Britain since the fifth edition was prepared in 1962, that certain sections of the book have had to be com pletely re-written; and some re-arrangement of the material has been undertaken as well. A new chapter on Fuel and Power includes the former chapter on Coal plus sections on gas, coke, thermal and hydroelectricity that were formerly scattered through other chapters. The chapter on Chemical Industries has been completely re-cast.

I am grateful to various friends and colleagues for substantial contribu tions to the new text. Professor J. T. Coppock has completely revised the chapters on Agriculture, Mr Trevor Thomas re-wrote the section on Coal, and Dr T. D. Kennea re-drafted the Fisheries chapter. Mr T. W. Freeman gave much good advice on the chapters relating to Ireland. Mr S. W. Rogers assisted in the revision of the Forestry chapter. Professor I. T. Millar helped me to sort out the problems of the chemical industries.

Other chapters to which substantial alterations, necessitated by changing technological and economic circumstances, have been made, are Iron and Steel and Miscellaneous Industries. The Textile chapters presented a special problem in that, especially in Lancashire, these industries have altered almost beyond recognition through contraction and the substitu tion of man-made fibres. So the chapters on Cotton and Wool have been left as studies in historical geography, with additions explaining some of the
modern developments.