Writing local history

Writing local history

Author: John Beckett

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2013-07-19

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1847795137

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This fascinating book looks at how local history developed from the antiquarian county studies of the sixteenth century through the growth of 'professional' history in the nineteenth century, to the recent past. Concentrating on the past sixty years, it looks at the opening of archive offices, the invigorating influence of family history, the impact of adult education and other forms of lifelong learning. The author considers the debates generated by academics, including the divergence of views over local and regional issues, and the importance of standards set by the Victoria County History (VCH). Also discussed is the fragmentation of the subject. The antiquarian tradition included various subject areas that are now separate disciplines, among them industrial archaeology, name studies, family, landscape and urban history. This is an authoritative account of how local history has come to be one of the most popular and productive intellectual pastimes in our modern society. Written by a practitioner who has spent more than twenty years teaching local history to undergraduates and M.A. students, as well as lecturing to local history societies, John Beckett is currently Director of the VCH. A remarkable book that will be of great interest to students and scholars of local history as well as amateur and professional genealogists.


A - Airports

A - Airports

Author: British Library

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-05-21

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 3111725944

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The Tyranny of the Discrete

The Tyranny of the Discrete

Author: John Duncan Marshall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13:

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This book argues that in the work of trained historians, as well as amateurs, English local history is weakened by a pervasive antiquarianism: an obsession with detail as opposed to substance. It examines such antiquarianism and shows it to be educationally damaging and wasteful of resources. The author examines the development of the main concepts in local history, and shows the importance of comparative and regional study, pursued through an ongoing and developing debate. He condemns the use of local history merely as a 'quarry', and suggests that local residents, societies and followers of family history can be brought together in the study of a new form of people's history - one which reflects the life experiences of the people concerned, and only then moves back into other, less familiar periods.