An accessible introduction to researching English local history from original records and written sources.

Paul Jennings traces the history of the British pub, and looks at how it evolved from the eighteenth century's coaching inns and humble alehouses, back-street beer houses and 'fine, flaring' gin palaces to the drinking establishments of the twenty-first century. Covering all aspects of pub life, this fascinating history looks at pubs in cities and rural areas, seaports and industrial towns. It identifies trends and discusses architectural and internal design, the brewing and distilling industries and the cultural significance of drink in society. Looking at everything from music and games to opening times and how they have affected anti-social behaviour, The Local is a must-read for every self-respecting pub-goer, from landlady to lager-lout.

This title was first published in 2000. Practised since the Middle Ages, it is only over the course of the last century that English local history attained professional status. This text explores the rich historiography of the subject by presenting essays which show how it has been defined, approached and practised at different stages of its development from the 16th century to the present day. Essays on individual historians - Camden, Thoroton, Hasted and Milner - stand side by side with others documenting general trends. the editor's concluding essay offers comparisons and contrasts between the concept and practice of local history in England with the developments in the USA.

This wide-ranging volume collects together twelve of the author’s longer essays, mainly drawn from those first published in the last two decades. Chiefly consisting of micro-studies of a variety of different aspects of early modern English history, the book concerns itself with social and economic change, the period of the English Revolution and its long-lasting impact, with Puritanism, with the family as a social institution, and with historical consciousness and different forms of historical writing. Some of the essays focus on a particular individual, not all well known – William Camden, John Milner, and Ralph Dutton – to open up a broader theme. One boldly attempts a comparison over three centuries of the evolution of local history as a subject on both sides of the Atlantic. Two other essays reach out into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but do so with echoes of the subject matter of some of those dealing with the early modern period. The inter-connectedness of social history, local history, and historiography is stressed and illustrated throughout. Both specialists and non-specialists will find much to interest them in this varied and rewarding volume.

This ambitious handbook takes advantage of recent advances in the study of the history of English to rethink the understanding of the field.

The classic guide to exploring English local history, brought up to date and expanded.

English local and regional history has attracted widespread attention in the last twenty-five to thirty years. Its study has expanded at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in universities, polytechnics, and at other institutions of higher education, and it has long retained its popularity as a subject for adult education classes. In schools the teaching of local history in its own right, and as an ingredient of general history, environmental studies, and local and social studies, is well established, and commonly involves the use of original sources. The expansion of genealogical studies into the wider area of family history has involved many individuals and groups in the investigation of the local conditions, which existed where former generations lived and, in this pursuit, increasing use of local records has been made. Many who seek to involve themselves in this work, however, find that they are ill-equipped in the knowledge of what sources exist, where they are to be found, or what techniques are suitable in making the best use of them.