List of illustrations * Abbreviations * Acknowledgements * Preface * Introduction * The origins of local history * The chorographic tradition * William Camden * Christopher Saxton * County histories * Dugdale and Thoroton * Natural history * Antiquaries at large: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries * Topographical studies * Archaeology * County histories * Collaborative county histories * 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 * Local history marginalised * Clubs and societies * Archaeology * Professional history * National history * 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 * 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 * New Approaches: the region and the community * Counties and parishes * Microhistory * Regions * Pays * Settlement * Regional flexibility * Regions and industrialising society * Cultural identity * Post-modernism * New Approaches: family history, towns, landscape and other specialisms * Family history * Urban history * Landscape history * Vernacular architecture * Industrial archaeology * Oral testimony * Place-names * Heritage * The sources revolution * The National Archives * County archive offices * Local studies libraries * The family * The land * The house * Source materials and the VCH * Local history today * Defining local history * Understanding past communities * Training * Guidebooks * Group research * Good local history * Issues, geographies and time periods * Conclusion * Bibliography * Index List of illustrations * Abbreviations * Acknowledgements * Preface * Introduction * The origins of local history * The chorographic tradition * William Camden * Christopher Saxton * County histories * Dugdale and Thoroton * Natural history * Antiquaries at large: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries * Topographical studies * Archaeology * County histories * Collaborative county histories * 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 * Local history marginalised * Clubs and societies * Archaeology * Professional history * National history * 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 * 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 * New Approaches: the region and the community * Counties and parishes * Microhistory * Regions * Pays * Settlement * Regional flexibility * Regions and industrialising society * Cultural identity * Post-modernism * New Approaches: family history, towns, landscape and other specialisms * Family history * Urban history * Landscape history * Vernacular architecture * Industrial archaeology * Oral testimony * Place-names * Heritage * The sources revolution * The National Archives * County archive offices * Local studies libraries * The family * The land * The house * Source materials and the VCH * Local history today * Defining local history * Understanding past communities * Training * Guidebooks * Group research * Good local history * Issues, geographies and time periods * Conclusion * Bibliography * Index.