"Liverpool: A People s History" tells the full story of this unique place in a way which celebrates the individuals who have shaped it, often allowing witnesses from the past to speak for themselves.

"Bringing together fiction from some of the city's most celebrated writers, The Book of Liverpool traces the unique contours that decades of social and economic change can impress on a city. Set against key historical moments from the Second World War to the Capital of Culture year, these stories question what 'belonging' and 'home' mean in the Liverpudlian context, from the regenerated city centre to satellite suburbs, from the sparring cathedrals to the no-go concrete housing estates. Liverpool emerges in these short stories as a city in constant flux: haunted by ghosts, buoyed up by myths, and shifting with an ebb and flow like Mercury itself."--BOOK JACKET.

This title was first published in 2003. Over the last 30 years, Liverpool has undergone more economic restructuring and urban change than virtually any other city in Britain and Europe. It has also been a testing ground for almost every experiment and innovation in modern urban policy. City of Change and Challenge analyses the urban planning and regeneration experience in Liverpool over this period. In doing so, it considers the extent to which the pressure to create jobs has led to economic development aims consistently taking precedence over environmental and social concerns, and the degree to which regeneration has been dominated by centralised and top-down approaches without a strong strategic planning framework. It also discusses why some policies and programmes have been more successful than others and what lessons might be learned, not only by Liverpool's future policy makers, but also by planners, politicians and academics throughout the world.

Liverpool was once one of the greatest cities in the British empire but it no longer feels like it is in England, if it ever did. It had retreated as a significant port after the Second World War and by 1979, it was already on the brink. What it needed was support but instead, a Conservative Party with aggressive new ideas allowed it to slide. Thirty-years after the Toxteth Riots, classified government papers revealed that the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was urged to abandon the city and embark on a programme of 'managed decline'. Why did Liverpool's fortunes change so dramatically? Why did it fight back when other cities did not? This is the untold story of what it was like for Liverpool's people and how the period defines who they are.

An even-handed reassessment of the 'Militant' period in Liverpool, including interviews with many of the key protagonists.