John Lidwell-Durnin

John Lidwell-Durnin is a Lecturer in the History Faculty of Exeter University specialising in the long eighteenth century. He focuses on environmental history, history of science, and agriculture in Britain and its empire.

John Lidwell-Durnin's research delves into how quantification and the rise of bureaucratic expertise has shaped societies' responses to challenges like food security and ecological change. His current research is focused on the history of mining and explores the efforts by the East India Company to bring Cornwall into competition with the Palembang Sultanate in the Pacific tin trade.

John's monograph, Explaining Famine in the British Empire: Agricultural Science, Food Security, and the Rise of Statistics (OUP, 2026) funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, examines the evolution of state-led efforts to use agricultural science in addressing famine and food supply challenges during the modern era.