Example history dissertation topic 15:

‘The local historian: from collector of antiquarian curio to family genealogist?’ – An analysis of the changing role of the local historian

Antiquarian studies such as those of Francis Blomefield, The History of the City and County of Norwich: containing its original rise and increase, its ancient and present government, with the various accidents that have happened to it; the foundations of the Cathedral, Castle, Parochial Churches, Monasteries, Hermitages, Hospitals, and other Publick Buildings (1806); for Durham, George Allan and Robert Hegg, Historical and Descriptive View of the City of Durham and its environs bound with the legend of Saint Cuthbert (1824); and for York, T. Allen, History and Antiquities of York (1828), were little more than prosaic accounts of the development of towns with mentions of notaries of the areas. Thereafter, local historians became, with the advent of the Hoskin’s school in the late 1940s more concerned with the geographic history of place. Today, public record offices are awash with local historians researching the genealogy of either their own or their client’s family. This dissertation charts the development of such local historians over a period of 200 years and assesses their on-going relevance given modern historical techniques and concerns.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Beckett, J. (2007) Writing local history. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Hoskins, W.G. and Hey, G. (1984) Local history in England. London: Longman.