From Lynn White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change:
In 1895 A. Meitzen realized that the form of plough chiefly used in Germany might explain many peculiarities in the arrangement of fields and in the co-operative agriculture often found in medieval villages. A generation of scholarly activity … produced in 1931 a synthesis from the pen of Marc Bloch which was the more persuasive because his convictions were so gracefully garnished with his doubts ….
Thanks to my brother Sasha for pointing this out to me.