author
Harriett Bradley Fitt
1892–1980
A historian and economist with a sharp eye for how ordinary people lived, she is best known for exploring England’s enclosure movement and the upheaval it brought to rural life. Her work opens a window onto the social and economic forces that reshaped the countryside.
1 Audiobook
The Enclosures in England: An Economic Reconstruction
by Harriett Bradley Fitt
About the author
Harriett Bradley Fitt was an American scholar of economics and history whose best-known work is The Enclosures in England: An Economic Reconstruction. Published in 1918 as part of Columbia University’s studies in history, economics, and public law, the book examines how enclosure changed land use, farming, and village life in England.
Records from Columbia University identify her as earning an M.A. in 1915 and a Ph.D. in 1917. Archival material also connects her to Vassar College as a student and preserves family papers and reminiscences that offer glimpses of her life beyond her published scholarship.
Although not widely known today, Fitt’s work remains of interest to readers drawn to economic history, agriculture, and the long story of how policy and property can transform everyday life. Her writing is especially appealing for listeners who enjoy serious nonfiction that explains big historical change through the details of land, labor, and society.