The present work builds substantially upon the foundations established by Conford's fine earlier work, The Origins of the Organic Movement, and in doing so considers the personalities, organisations, institutions, journals and educational structures linked to the movement over the first fifty post-war years. It is a richly detailed and multi-faceted volume wherein are laid bare the tensions, contradictions and internal divisions which have periodically beset the organic world. Be they Steinerian biodynamists of varying hues and esoteric leanings, Permaculturists or commercially minded organic growers, enthusiasts for the organic way have constantly struggled against the dictates of vested interests, limitations of funding and the derision of conventional economists and scientists. They have also been confronted by the profound, and some might say futile, problem of demonstrating an unequivocal link between organically produced food and its possible benefits to human health and nutrition. While there may be some truth in Conford's assertion that human health may ultimately thrive ‘through the balanced co-existence of vitality and order’, achieving the political and social conditions for such a state of perfection may well prove a tall order. In addressing the often repeated argument that the organic movement will fail to gain genuine credibility unless it engages properly with scientific methodology, Conford argues that the holistic nature of the ‘organic way’ largely precludes this approach. Indeed, one enthusiast concluded in despair that orthodox scientific methods were unsatisfactory instruments to demonstrate the truth of a philosophy, at which many conventional scientists may wring their hands in despair!

This book represents the culmination of many years of reading, listening and observing. It is noteworthy for the elegance and clarity with which complex philosophical, aesthetic and spiritual concepts are addressed and for the fairness and sanity of the judgements expressed. Among the many important insights offered by Conford, and one which will provoke heated, if not bitter argument, is the apparent link between the philosophical stance of the early organic pioneers of the inter-war years and those practitioners whom he terms the ‘Seventies generation’. Recognition of the need to work with natural cycles and an appreciation of the importance of holistic organicism as a counteractive to conventional ‘industrial’ agriculture is as much part of the credo of the ‘Seventies generation’ as it was of the radical right pioneers of the 1930s. The latter strove to proselytise the organic way, linked to Christian social principles, as a vital component of post-war reconstruction. To their way of thinking, over exploitation of nature was clear evidence of the abandonment of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, with its sense of man's stewardship of nature. Such stewardship could be seen as sacramental since after all, nature itself was a direct manifestation of the glory of God. Thus did organicism unite the earthly and the spiritual. In Conford's view, and he supports it with impressive evidence, there exists a direct continuity between the Christian principles of men like Philip Mairet and H. J. Massingham and those of Schumacher, Seymour and their followers. For the ‘Seventies generation’, many of them of an anti-capitalist, leftish persuasion and in thrall to the notion of eco-politics, the suggestion that organic husbandry and organicism are linked to the Christian tradition will probably be gall and wormwood. Then so be it. Let Conford's detractors combat his well argued conclusions with their own body of evidence.

It is quite impossible in a brief notice to do adequate justice to this substantial volume. It confirms Conford's position as the pre-eminent historian of the organic movement, at the same time providing a platform for tracing the rather rough passage of the movement over the past two decades. If it is essential reading for people involved in organicism and Green politics, the fact that it offers many fascinating glimpses of the doings of individuals on the fringes of social and cultural history suggests that it is deserving of a wide readership among all those interested in the changing pattern of the first five post-war decades.