I have a feeling that the issue of the relationship between local and
national history must have been gone into many times before. And I have
an idea that there must be abundant examples of local history being
incorporated into national history, mostly by the usual process of the
local history being published, probably locally, and its then being
picked up by researchers at the national level doing their literature
review or whatever. I live in Wolverhampton. Its history is under-
researched and under published. As a result Wolverhampton very rarely
appears in books which are trying to give a national picture of any
topic. (I am not sure what loss that is to anyone).
I am also not sure that many local historians are very much interested
in how the local picture fits in to the national picture. I have an
idea that quite a lot are not interested at all. What local people seem
to be interested in is what happened on their patch - and, preferably,
what happened there within their own lifetime and that of their parents
and grandparents.
I also suspect that many people who are looking at local history are not
interested in grand theory - or even petty theory. They want to know
what happened on their patch at a very concrete level.
I am sure that the Internet is as able to change aspects of local
history as it can change aspects of almost anything. But just to
mention one point: Local history, of any sort, can readily be published
on a web site. You can include basic data, "finished" work, work in
progress and seek feed back from others, whoever they may be and
whatever their interests are. You can include little bits and pieces
which may be of interest today and of use to someone, sometime; and you
can fully credit those who provided it - many of whom like the idea that
they are going to be on the Internet. Historical knowledge is
contingent and a web site reflects that contingency. It is quicker,
cheaper and more flexible than publishing your own print magazine. And,
if you run the web site, you can publish your own findings and opinions
to your heart's content. My colleague, Bev Parker, and I are trying to
see what can be done in this direction. Our Wolverhampton local history
site is at: www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/home.htm - though it might
save getting your typing fingers in a twist if you just type
"Wolverhampton history", or some such, into a search engine. (The site,
by the way, is hosted by wlv.ac.uk, but they and their excellent history
department are in no way responsible for its content). Bev is an
electronics expert and I am a retired lawyer, so it is pretty free of
any pretence to historical theory; but, we hope, it reflects what people
find interesting about our local history. We always like to get
feedback on the site and would appreciate any comments, suggestions,
observations, abuse, criticism, contributions or whatever - sent to me
direct rather than the list.
--
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton, UK.
tel: +44 01902 763246
look: no quotes, no graphics!
|