Historical Criticism of Lord of the Rings?

Question

Does anyone know of a website that provides some analysis of Tolkien's life and how it relates to the Lord of the Rings. I know about the whole struggle between him fighting the industrialization that was moving in on him, but I can't find a source for that information so that I can cite it. Help!

Answer 1

if you get the extended dvds of the recent films, you may find some useful information in the documentary materials presented in the special features. they cover his early life in some detail, from childhood to university to wwI to life as an oxford don. i think his environment v industry is a central part of who he was as a person, but that his feelings and thoughts on the subject were largely to be found in his art, and not in anything that he wrote from a scholarly or political point of view. interviews with his biographers and contemporaries seem to be the source of much of this insight. it is largely anecdotal. you may consider reading the work of tom shippey, a tolkien biographer, a contemporary of tolkien, and an oxford don in his own right who has taught the same syllabus of studies that tolkien himself did.

if you type tom shippey into your search engine, you will find numerous sites that discuss him and his work about tolkien, good luck.

Answer 2

Here's a great site that discusses his love of nature and antipathy towards industrialization and how this manifests in his writings:
http://greenbooks.theonering.net/anwyn/files/070101.html