Bieleman was trained in landscape architecture at the
Landbouwhogeschool in Wageningen, and his work as a historical geographer benefited from his knowledge of landscape history. He then shifted to agricultural history, and his dissertation research culminated in his doctoral dissertation, an extensive research project that focused on agricultural practices in the Dutch province of
Drenthe; he graduated
cum laude. That project fitted in with the interest in regional studies of the Wageningen chair group he worked with, but his was innovative in extending the field into the 19th century. At the same time, the study was a critique of
Bernard Slicher van Bath's influential
Een samenleving onder spanning: Geschiedenis van het platteland in Overijssel (1956), the first Dutch regional monograph, which focused on agricultural developments in
Gelderland, and the book that made Bieleman move from landscape architecture to agricultural history. Bieleman proved that far from static and repetitive, farming in the early modern period was dynamic. Bieleman's first published monograph was a history of his native village,
Heino, in
Overijssel:
Heino: Een geschiedenis van mens en plaats ("Heino: A history of men and space"), published in the mid-1970s. He was published widely, and his
Five centuries of farming: a short history of Dutch agriculture 1500–2000 is considered his masterpiece. The book, in English, was adapted and translated from his
Boeren in Nederland, 1500–2000, which in turn was the successor of
Geschiedenis van de landbouw in Nederland, 1500–1950, a publication based on his dissertation. With Peter Priester he published the third volume in the
Technology in the Twentieth Century series. ==Bibliography==