Plough publishes pretty pieces. This piece about the 19th-century radical William Cobbett is the latest. It discusses the centralization of agriculture that took place in England in the early 1800s and Cobbett's resistance (which made him one of GKC's heroes; he wrote a biography about him).
The piece, and Cobbett's Rural Rides that it celebrates, seems to continue the story told by Belloc in The Servile State, which explained that Henry VIII started intense centralization of power by destroying the monasteries and giving huge estates to his friends and allies (the Howards, Cecils, Cavendishes, Russells, and fifty other families).
Aside: Potemkin Plough?
I subscribed to Plough back in the 1990s, then it ran a fawning editorial about Cuba. Cuba, the editorial explained, might be poor, but the people are happier without possessions. The Plough team, the editorial explained, had gone there and seen it for themselves!
Vice President Henry Wallace, of course, saw the same thing when he believed the workers in Stalin's gulag were "volunteers." Communist dupes have a long history in the United States, so much so, I just assumed everyone was aware of the problem (to wit, if you visit a Communist state, the ruler is going to show you only what he wants you to see, complete with the explanation you want to hear).
Anyway, I've reluctantly started reading Plough's pieces again and enjoy what I see, but I approach every article with caution.
