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.

List of illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements

Preface

I Introduction

IIThe origins of local history
The chorographic tradition
William Camden
Christopher Saxton
County histories
Dugdale and Thoroton
Natural history

III Antiquaries at large: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Topographical studies
Archaeology
County histories
Collaborative county histories

IV The parish and the town
Parish histories
Town histories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Town histories of the eighteenth century
Town histories of the nineteenth century

V Local history marginalised
Clubs and societies
Archaeology
Professional history
National history

VI Local History and national History, 1880-1945
The study of the village
Economic history, local history and adult education
The Victoria County History
Record publishing

VII W.G. Hoskins and the founding of modern local history
The Annales School
W.G. Hoskins
The Making of the English Landscape
Post-war developments
Local history and the parish
The Midland Peasant
Farming regions
Regions without boundaries

VIII New Approaches: the region and the community
Counties and parishes
Microhistory
Regions
Pays
Settlement
Regional flexibility
Regions and industrialising society
Cultural identity
Post-modernism

IX New Approaches: family history, towns, landscape and other specialisms
Family history
Urban history
Landscape history
Vernacular architecture
Industrial archaeology
Oral testimony
Place-names
Heritage

X The sources revolution
The National Archives
County archive offices
Local studies libraries
The family
The land
The house
Source materials and the VCH

XI Local history today
Defining local history
Understanding past communities
Training
Guidebooks
Group research
Good local history
Issues, geographies and time periods

XII Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Author

John Beckett is Professor of English Regional History at the University of Nottingham and Director of the Victoria County History at the University of London