Taking stock: Perspectives on British urban history

Abstract

Drawing on an unprecedented volume of recent scholarship on the urban history of Britain, this paper seeks to identify areas for future academic research. These include a closer alignment of intellectual disciplines to cross-fertilise approaches to the historical study of towns and cities; a more resolute engagement by urban historians with audio and visual sources and a generally more coherent archival policy for the contemporary period; further integration of Irish perspectives into the study of British urban history; and a more imaginative analytical framework than town typologies by which to understand the process of urban change. In addition, a number of other areas are suggested, and the article concludes on a positivist note by reflecting on the extent to which the field of British urban history has been consolidated and rendered accessible to specialist historians and general public alike.