Down to Earth: Historians and the Historiography of Soil Knowledge (1975–2011)

At the end of the nineteenth century, the scientific discipline of soil science originated from two independent natural sciences: agricultural chemistry and geology. From the 1930's onward, the field of soil science grew strongly. Various subfields, such as soil fertility research, soil mapping and soil classification, advanced greatly after World War II. As of 1900, the first histories of the discipline began to appear. Soil scientists with an interest in history, described the emergence and development of soil science to legitimize and promote their field. Only from the 1970's onward, professional historians took an interest in agricultural science and subsequently in soil science. Science and agricultural historians pioneered in this historiography, but soon environmental historians joined them and finally different interdisciplinary works were completed. This paper aims to study the way professional historians have dealt with the history of soil knowledge. It gives an overview of the development of soil knowledge historiography through a critical discussion of the English language literature. The following questions will be answered: Who took an interest in this subject and why? Who are the most prominent historians in the field? How do historians approach the subject? What questions, problems and hypotheses do they present, and what is their goal? The answers to these questions may lead to new research venues.