From Emmeline Pankhurst to the Gallagher brothers, this panoramic history of Manchester from the author of the acclaimed Northerners captures the vivid character of the city brilliantly.
A rich and vivid history of Britain's second city through the people who have made it
Made in Manchester is the tale of England’s second city; a metropolis that exported industry and commerce to all others and whose culture is celebrated globally. Like Brian Groom’s bestselling Northerners, this definitive history expertly combines pacey narrative with vividly drawn portraits.
Manchester was the ‘shock city’ of the Industrial Revolution. Visitors arrived from foreign lands, who saw in it a foretaste of the world’s future. But no one knew whether the upheaval would lead to prosperity or starvation. ‘From this filthy sewer pure gold flows,’ wrote French social commentator Alexis de Tocqueville.
It was a hotbed of politics too. The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 is immortalised in British folklore. The city was a centre for radical movements such as Chartism, yet also spawned the employer-led Anti-Corn Law League, which made free trade Britain’s economic orthodoxy. It became the centre of the global cotton industry and a pioneer in engineering. But Made in Manchester will also tell the untold story of the pre-industrial age: Manchester’s Roman fort was manned by soldiers from across the empire, prefiguring the cosmopolitanism of the present day.
We meet the scientists who produced the world’s first stored-program computer; industrialists who laid the foundation of modern mass production; campaigners like Emmeline Pankhurst; writers Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess; composers like Peter Maxwell Davies; and artists such as L.S. Lowry. Manchester’s music scene produced iconic bands including Joy Division and Oasis.
Made in Manchester will tackle the city’s sometimes spiky relations with its neighbours and its reputation for arrogance, asking whether the city’s inhabitants have a definable character. And it will ask whether Manchester, through economic decline and recent recovery, has lived up to its early promise, and whether it can still do so today.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008608521
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 600 g
Dimensions: 240 x 159 x 35 mm
‘Brian Groom fights for northern history.’ Lancashire Evening Post ‘There’s no one better than him to peel back the layers of this ancient but very, very modern city.’ I Love MCR Praise for Brian Groom’s Northerners… ‘Entertaining and informative. … Avoids sentimentality and stereotypes.’ The Times, Book of the Week ‘A definitive new chronicle of the region.’ The Mirror ‘Comprehensive and highly readable.’ Financial Times ‘This is a huge book, in which the author slips seamlessly and triumphantly from one subject to another.’ Literary Review ‘Hugely impressive.’ Big Issue ‘A rich and kaleidoscopic history of a region, its landscape, industries, culture and people. … As full of good things as the North itself.’ Stuart Maconie ‘A wonderful compendium of the North’s proud, deep, ancient otherness.’ James Hawes ‘An essential writer and a tireless champion of the north.’ George Parker ‘A measured and essential voice in these compromised times.’ Adam Boulton ‘One of journalism’s most astute observers of the state of Britain.’ Helen Pidd ‘One of the leading experts on Britain’s regions and nations and a perceptive analyst.’ Duncan Weldon ‘Panoramic, authoritative and a beautiful read.’ Sebastian Payne
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