1st Edition

Northern Identities Historical Interpretations of ‘the North’ and ‘Northernness’

Edited By Neville Kirk Copyright 2000

    Recent years have witnessed an explosion of academic and popular interest in the issue of social identity. Yet the subject areas of regional and sub-regional identities, and historical engagements between ’the regional’, ’the local’ and ’the national’, remain very neglected. Seeking to make a contribution towards redressing these areas of neglect and to further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the general issue of social identity, this volume of essays offers the reader an exploration of some of the rich and varied, historical interpretations of ’the North’ and ’Northernness’. The focus rests mainly, but not exclusively, upon the North of England. Taken as a whole, the essays highlight the contingent, fluid, and ambiguous nature of ’Northenness’, its complex and shifting interplay with feelings of localism and nationalism, and the profound, if varying, influences of class, race, gender, sport, tourism, music and political and economic structures and concerns upon ’northern’ identities. This book will hold a general appeal to readers interested in the issue of social identity, especially in its regional and local manifestations and engagements. It will find a wide readership across the humanities and social sciences. It should be compulsory reading for those in New Labour addressing the issue of the ’North-South divide’.

    Contents: Introduction; Neville Kirk; Part one: Constructions of ’the North’ and ’Northernness’: Constructing ’the North’: space and a sense of place, Stuart Rawnsley; Music and northern identity, 1890-c. 1965, Dave Russell; Urban systems, identity and development in Lancashire and Yorkshire: a complex question, Stephen Caunce; ’The playground of Northern England’: the Isle of Man, Manxness and the northern working class, John Belchem; Tradition and tourism: representing Basque identities in San Sebastián and its province, 1848-1936, John K. Walton; Part two: Case studies: place and identity: Samuel Bamford and northern identity, Martin Hewitt and Robert Poole; Sport and the social construction of identity in north-east England, 1800-1914, Mike Huggins; ’In the Midlands but not of them’: Derbyshire’s dark peak - an imagined northern landscape, Melanie Tebbutt; Ambiguous identities: constructing and de-constructing black and white 'Scouse' identities in twentieth-century Liverpool, Diane Frost; Index.

    Biography

    Neville Kirk