Local history
Local history can be seen to have evolved from the efforts of antiquarians to write histories of their parishes, and this approach was continued by historians from among the gentry by the middle-class members of Victorian county societies. Following professionalisation the dominant themes of first constitutional political history and then economic history both prompted research into localities, but it was not until the foundation of the Department (later Centre) of English Local History at Leicester by W. G. Hoskins that the subject achieved a greater degree of academic respectability. Since then local history has been characterised by its openness to influences from other disciplines such as archaeology and geography, and its practitioners have sought to investigate regional differences while still practising local history in general.
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- Historians:
- Hoskins, William George
Thirsk, Joan - Institutions:
- British Association for Local History
Centre for English Local History
Victoria County History - Related themes:
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Annales school
Antiquarianism
Community history
Economic history
Family history
Social history
Related publications
- Charles Phythian-Adams, 'Hoskins's England : a local historian of genius and the realisation of his theme', Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 66 (1992), 143–59
- Jack Simmons, Local, national, and imperial history : an inaugural lecture delivered at University College, Leicester, 16 Feb. 1948 (Leicester, 1950)
