Now history books do date and eventually get passed over and eclipsed by newer ones.
It is partly fashion but also that as the scholarship moves on what was said at best only tells half a story and at worst is just shown to be wrong.
And much hangs on interpretation and the outlook of the historian. So the significance of an event or the contribution of a person is subject to revaluation as the values of a society change.
The idea that a history book about world events could totally ignore the contribution of women and non Europeans would seem nonsense and yet many of us will have used school text books that did just that.
All of which is an introduction to a book I had long thought lost.
It is “Rich Inheritance” written in 1962 and was “a guide to the history of Manchester.” Its editor was N.J. Frangopulo and it was the work of members of the Manchester Teachers’ History Discussion Group and was published by the Manchester Education Committee.*
And all of that marked it out as something a bit different.
Today I doubt that an Education Committee would be minded to publish such a book, or that teacher’s would have time embark on such a project.
It was part a conventional history book providing a chronological description of the city’s past with four themed chapters covering the achievements of the local council, the development of public education and the emergence of Manchester into a cosmopolitan city but more usefully for many was a handbook of where to go to find out more.
Today we might call this second part a database and it included biographies, significant buildings and descriptions of the art galleries, libraries and museums.
Faced with the task of researching an event or set of resources the modern student has only to search the net and get instant access to everything from a potted history to a tour of a museum or art gallery along with shed loads of historical interpretation and access to archives which sit on dusty shelves half way round the world.
But 1962 was a very different time when even the simple exercise of searching for family history involved physically visiting parish records and graves in far flung parts of the country.
So I still have a lot of time for my copy of Rich Inheritance which I bought in 1973 and which I plundered with relish for most of the rest of that decade.
Bits of it have not worn well. Some of the museums it mentions have altered beyond recognition, the schools service is no more and the guide to photocopying charges at Central Ref are themselves a bit of history.**
But for anyone interested in the mechanics of research there is much here that is universal which is as relevant today as it was half a century ago including the value of Rate Books, the records of the Quarter Sessions, electoral rolls and parish records all of which plunge the researcher into the real details of everyday life.
If I am honest I doubt that the book will get thumbed as regularly as it did back in 1973, but it still has little gems like the short description on the expansion of Municipal schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with a list of Board Schools.
And above all it is now a piece of history pointing to a time when a group of serving teachers supported by Manchester Education Committee could freely devote their time, energy and skills to a book advancing the history of the city
*Rich Inheritance, Ed N.J. Frangopulo, Manchester Education Committee, 1962.
**to copy a document 10” by 8” 3s 6d, 15”by 12” 5s 6d and 20” by 16” 7.0d
Pictures; cover from Rich Inheritance, 2nd ed, 1969 and St Peter’s Square circ 1960 from the collection of Sally Dervan and Albert Square , circa 1960s from the collection of Rita Bishop
And much hangs on interpretation and the outlook of the historian. So the significance of an event or the contribution of a person is subject to revaluation as the values of a society change.
The idea that a history book about world events could totally ignore the contribution of women and non Europeans would seem nonsense and yet many of us will have used school text books that did just that.
It is “Rich Inheritance” written in 1962 and was “a guide to the history of Manchester.” Its editor was N.J. Frangopulo and it was the work of members of the Manchester Teachers’ History Discussion Group and was published by the Manchester Education Committee.*
And all of that marked it out as something a bit different.
Today I doubt that an Education Committee would be minded to publish such a book, or that teacher’s would have time embark on such a project.
It was part a conventional history book providing a chronological description of the city’s past with four themed chapters covering the achievements of the local council, the development of public education and the emergence of Manchester into a cosmopolitan city but more usefully for many was a handbook of where to go to find out more.
Today we might call this second part a database and it included biographies, significant buildings and descriptions of the art galleries, libraries and museums.
Faced with the task of researching an event or set of resources the modern student has only to search the net and get instant access to everything from a potted history to a tour of a museum or art gallery along with shed loads of historical interpretation and access to archives which sit on dusty shelves half way round the world.
But 1962 was a very different time when even the simple exercise of searching for family history involved physically visiting parish records and graves in far flung parts of the country.
So I still have a lot of time for my copy of Rich Inheritance which I bought in 1973 and which I plundered with relish for most of the rest of that decade.
Bits of it have not worn well. Some of the museums it mentions have altered beyond recognition, the schools service is no more and the guide to photocopying charges at Central Ref are themselves a bit of history.**
If I am honest I doubt that the book will get thumbed as regularly as it did back in 1973, but it still has little gems like the short description on the expansion of Municipal schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with a list of Board Schools.
And above all it is now a piece of history pointing to a time when a group of serving teachers supported by Manchester Education Committee could freely devote their time, energy and skills to a book advancing the history of the city
*Rich Inheritance, Ed N.J. Frangopulo, Manchester Education Committee, 1962.
**to copy a document 10” by 8” 3s 6d, 15”by 12” 5s 6d and 20” by 16” 7.0d
Pictures; cover from Rich Inheritance, 2nd ed, 1969 and St Peter’s Square circ 1960 from the collection of Sally Dervan and Albert Square , circa 1960s from the collection of Rita Bishop
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