Mark Overton

Mark Overton is a British agricultural historian and former Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Exeter. He studied economic history and geography at Exeter, then completed doctoral work in historical geography at the University of Cambridge on agricultural change in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Over the course of his academic career, he taught at Cambridge and Newcastle before joining Exeter in 1995. Alongside his university leadership roles, he was also active in the Agricultural History Society, serving for many years as treasurer and later as president.

His best-known books include Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy, 1500–1850, Production and Consumption in English Households, 1600–1750, Farming to Halves, and the collaborative study British Economic Growth, 1270–1870. He is especially respected for showing how agriculture connects to family life, work, and the broader development of the British economy.