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Department of Geography

 

Alan Baker, BA MA PhD DLit

University Lecturer (1966-2001) (retired end September 2001) and Life Fellow of Emmanuel College.

Historical geographer, whose research is focused upon the changing society, economy, culture and landscape of France during the nineteenth century.

Biography

Career

  • 1963-1966: Lecturer, University College London
  • 1966-2001: Lecturer, University of Cambridge (retired end September 2001)
  • 1970-present: Fellow, Emmanuel College Cambridge
  • 1976-1986: Senior Tutor, Emmanuel College Cambridge
  • 1989-1994: Head, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.

Qualifications

  • BA University College London
  • MA University of Cambridge
  • PhD University College London
  • DLit University of London

Awards

  • Royal Geographical Society’s Gill Memorial Prize in 1974
  • 1997 Alan was honoured by the French Government as a Chevalier dans l’Ordres des Palmes Académiques
  • 2003 Elected an Honorary Member of the Société Géographique de Paris
  • 2009 approved by H.M. the Queen for award of the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal, one of only two Gold Medals awarded by the RGS annually
  • 2010 elected a Fellow of the British Academy

Research

  • The changing social, economic and cultural landscapes of France in the 19th century.
  • The relations of geography and history.

Recently Graduated Research Students

Alan has supervised 18 Ph.D. dissertations: five of his former students are Professors in UK Universities and one in a Canadian university.

Publications

Selected publications

  • Baker, A.R.H. (1998) ‘Military service and migration in nineteenth-century France: some evidence from Loir-et-Cher.’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 23: 193-206
  • Baker, A.R.H. (1999) Fraternity among the French peasantry: sociability and voluntary associations in the Loire Valley, 1815-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 373pp.
  • Baker, A.R.H. (1999) ‘Historical geographies of England and Wales 1925-1995.’ in : Y. Ben-Artzi, I. Bartal and E. Reiner (eds.) Studies in geography and history: essays in honour of Yehoshua Ben-Arieh. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 33-62.
  • Baker, A.R.H. (1999) ‘Reflections on the relations of historical geography and the Annales School of history.’ in: S. Clark (ed.) The Annales School: critical assessments; vol.II London: Routledge, 96-129.
  • Baker, A.R.H. (1999) ‘Some English images of the French peasantry 1789-1915.’ in: J.R. Pitte and A-L. Sanguin (eds.) Géographie et liberté: mélanges en hommage à Paul Claval. Paris: Editions Harmattan, 213-224
  • Baker, A.R.H. (2003) Geography and History: Bridging the Divide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Translated and published in Chinese in 2008 and in Japanese in 2009.
  • Baker, A.R.H. and Billinge, M. (Eds) (2004) Geographies of England: The North-South Divide, Material and Imagined. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2011) Diversity or domination? Tall buildings and the built environment of Cambridge. Emmanuel College Magazine 93: 67-86
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2012) Forging a national identity for France after 1789: the role of landscape symbols. Geography 97: 22-28
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2012) Hail as hazard: changing attitudes towards crop protection against hail damage in France, 1815-1914. Agricultural History Review 60: 19-36.
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2013) Pigeon racing clubs in Pas-de-Calais, France, 1870-1914. Journal of Historical Geography 41: 1-12
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2014) Les bibliothèques populaires françaises et la connaissance géographique (1860-1900) in A. Sandras (ed.) Des Bibliothèques populaires à la lecture publique. Villeurbanne: Enssib – Université de Lyon, 283-293
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2014) Des aspects géographiques des sociétés de préparation militaire en France, 1870-1914. Revue Historique des Armées 274: 15-22
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2017) Amateur Musical Societies and Sports Clubs in Provincial France, 1848-1914: Harmony and Hostility. Palgrave Macmillan. 341pp.
  • Baker, A. R. H. (2018) A French reading revolution? The development, distribution and cultural significance of bibliothèques populaires, 1860-1900. Historical Geography Research Series 45, pp. 74.
  • Baker, A.R.H., Black, I.S. and Butlin, R.A. B. (2019), 130 Years of Historical Geography at Cambridge 1888-2018. London: RGS with IBG.
  • Baker, A.R.H. (2022) The Personality of Paris: Landscape and Society in the Long-Nineteenth Century London, Bloomsbury Academic, pp.225

The Personality of Paris: Landscape and Society in the Long-Nineteenth Century Amateur Musical Societies and Sports Clubs in Provincial France, 1848-1914: Harmony and Hostility Geography and History: Bridging the Divide Fraternity among the French peasantry: sociability and voluntary associations in the Loire Valley, 1815-1914

External activities

  • Founder member, and twice chairman, of the Historical Geography Research Group of the Institute of British Geographers.
  • Founder member of the editorial board of the Journal of Historical Geography, and its Editor from 1987 to 1996.
  • Chairman of the International Geographical Union’s Working Group on Historical Change in Spatial Organisation from 1980 to 1984.
  • 2002-2010 Liberal Democrat Councillor on Cambridge City Council and Chair of its Planning Committee 2003-2010.
  • Member of the Board of Trustees of Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau 2010-2019.