Historiography of the United Kingdom facts for kids

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The historiography of the United Kingdom is about how historians have researched and written about the past of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. It's like looking at how people have told the story of these places over time.

Medieval History Writers

An old picture of Bede from 1493.

The first important historian of Wales and England was Gildas, a monk from the 5th century. His book, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, talked about the fall of the Britons to Saxon invaders. He believed it was God's punishment.

Bede (673–735), an English monk, was super important in the Anglo-Saxon era. He used Gildas's work to write The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede saw English history as one big story, centered around the Christian church.

Many other writers, called chroniclers, wrote detailed accounts of recent events. King Alfred the Great started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 893. Later, Jean Froissart (1333–1410) wrote Froissart's Chronicles, which is a key source for the first part of the Hundred Years' War.

Tudor and Stuart Times

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) was a soldier and writer who lived during the late Renaissance. While in prison, he started writing his History of the World. He used many sources and focused on ancient history and geography. King James I didn't like it, saying it was "too sawcie in censuring Princes" (too rude about kings).

Writing About the English Reformation

The English Reformation was a huge change when England broke away from the Catholic Church. Historians have argued about it for centuries!

Many different groups of historians have written about the Reformation:

Protestant, Catholic, and Anglican historians often wrote from their own religious viewpoints.
Whig historians saw the Reformation as a step forward, bringing England from the "Dark Ages" into modern times. They believed it led to more freedom and progress.
Neo-Marxist historians focused on how economic changes, like the rise of new landowners, played a role.

Since the 1970s, scholars have looked at the Reformation in four main ways:

Some, like Geoffrey Elton, focused on the political side. They looked at how policies were made and put into action by leaders like Thomas Cromwell.
Others, like Geoffrey Dickens, focused on the religious side. They believed the Reformation, while started by leaders, also came from people's desires for religious change.
Revisionists, like Christopher Haigh, looked at local records instead of just what the powerful people wrote. They found that the Reformation played out differently in everyday life in villages.
Finally, historians like Patrick Collinson looked closely at the different religious groups, like the Calvinist Puritans, who had different ideas about the Church of England.

Newer studies pay more attention to local areas, Catholic views, and the different religious groups. They also focus less on King Henry VIII and more on other factors.

Puritans and the Civil War

The rise of the Puritans and the English Civil War are big topics in 17th-century English history.

Edward Hyde, a royal advisor, wrote an important history called The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1702). He believed that God's plan influenced major events.

Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1820–1902) is considered the most important modern historian of the Puritan movement and Civil War. His detailed books cover the period from 1603 to 1660, looking at politics, government, religion, and ideas.

18th Century History Writers

The Enlightenment, a time of new ideas in Scotland and England, really helped history writing grow.

William Robertson

William Robertson, a Scottish historian, wrote a History of Scotland (1759) and The History of the Reign of Charles V (1769). He was very careful with his research and used many new documents. He was also one of the first to understand how big ideas shaped history.

David Hume

Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume published his History of England in six volumes starting in 1754. It covered history from Julius Caesar's invasion to 1688. Hume didn't just write about kings and wars; he also looked at culture, literature, and science. He believed that the search for liberty was the most important thing in the past.

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon's famous book, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789), set a very high standard for writing history. It also showed how important careful research was. Many later historians were inspired by Gibbon, especially those interested in the British Empire.

19th Century History Writers

Much of the history written in the 19th century was influenced by Romanticism, a movement that focused on emotion and imagination.

Whig History

Whig history was a popular way of looking at the past. It presented history as a steady journey towards more freedom and progress, ending with modern liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. Whig historians often highlighted the growth of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress.

The term "Whig history" was actually created by Herbert Butterfield in 1931 to criticize this approach. He argued that it made history seem like it was always getting better, which isn't always true. Whig historians often saw British history as a march of progress and viewed past political figures as heroes or villains based on whether they helped or hindered this progress.

Macaulay's Influence

Macaulay was a famous Whig historian who believed history showed steady progress.

The most famous Whig historian was Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859). His The History of England from the Accession of James II, published in 1848, was a huge success. His writing was powerful and confidently showed a progressive view of British history, where the country moved away from old ways to create a balanced government and freedom.

While some historians today don't read Macaulay as much, his book is still considered very important for understanding that period.

Local History

Before the 1960s, local history was very popular in Britain. It focused on the history of specific towns and counties. The Victoria County History project, which started in 1899, aimed to create a huge history book for each historic county in England.

Local history is still important today, with groups like the British Association for Local History helping people study their local past.

20th Century History Writers

Key Historians

Thorold Rogers (1823–1890) studied economic history, especially farming and prices in England.
French historian Élie Halévy (1870–1937) wrote a multi-volume history of England. He believed that religious nonconformity (people not following the main church) helped prevent a revolution like the one in France.
G. M. Trevelyan (1876–1962) was a very popular historian. He combined good research with a lively writing style and a patriotic view of England's progress.
Lewis Namier (1888–1960) had a big impact on how historians did research. He focused on looking at many individuals and their lives, rather than big themes.
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) was known for his ideas about how history should be studied.

History Becomes a Profession

In the 20th century, history became a more professional field. Groups like the Royal Historical Society (founded 1868) and journals like The English Historical Review (started 1886) were created.

Universities like Manchester started offering PhD programs focused on original research. This was different from older universities like Oxford and Cambridge, which focused more on teaching undergraduates.

Class and Society

Marxist historiography is a way of studying history that focuses on social class and economic factors. Friedrich Engels wrote about the working class in England, which inspired socialist ideas.

R. H. Tawney was an important historian who looked at economic history, like how land was used and the connection between Protestantism and capitalism.

The "Storm over the gentry" was a big debate in the 1940s and 1950s. Historians argued about whether the rising class of wealthy landowners (the gentry) caused the English Civil War. Most historians later decided that the gentry's role wasn't the main reason.

Marxist Historians

A group of historians in the Communist Party of Great Britain became very influential. They focused on "history from below", looking at the lives of ordinary people and class structures.

Christopher Hill (1912–2003) specialized in 17th-century English history, writing many books about Puritanism and the English Revolution.
E. P. Thompson (1924–1993) wrote The Making of the English Working Class (1963), which looked at the forgotten history of the working class in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He argued that "class" was not just a structure but a changing relationship.

Other important Marxist historians included Eric Hobsbawm. However, this approach became less popular in the 1960s and 70s.

Rostow's Economic Stages

In 1960, American economic historian Walt Whitman Rostow wrote The Stages of Economic Growth. He suggested that countries go through five stages of economic growth, from traditional society to high mass consumption. This idea was an alternative to Marxist views and used British history as a comparison.

Since 1945

First World War Studies

Historians continue to be very interested in the First World War.

Early studies focused on the military side.
Later, scholars looked at the diplomatic reasons for the war.
More recently, attention has shifted to the experiences of common soldiers and the role of the British Empire's colonies.
Social history now looks at the home front, including women's roles and propaganda.

Important Historians (Post-1945)

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) was famous for his huge 12-volume A Study of History, which looked at world history with a religious view.
Keith Feiling (1884–1977) was known for his conservative view of history, supporting traditional institutions like the monarchy and the Church.
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) was a well-known historian and TV personality. He wrote important books on European diplomacy and 20th-century Britain. He was called "the Macaulay of our age" because of his clear writing and popular appeal.
Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914–2003) was a leading essayist who enjoyed debates on historical topics, especially 16th and 17th-century England and Nazi Germany.

Political History

Political history, which looks at leaders and political parties, has always been a popular area of study.

Postwar Consensus

The post-war consensus is an idea used by historians to describe a period from 1945 to 1979. During this time, there was a general agreement among political parties on policies like a mixed economy, a broad welfare state (including the National Health Service), and full employment.

Historians like Paul Addison argued that this consensus was strong. However, in recent years, some historians have debated whether this agreement was as deep as once thought, pointing out that parties still had their differences.

Business History

Business history in Britain started to grow in the 1950s. Early studies looked at important companies and their role in developing industries. Later, historians focused on why British businesses might have lost their competitive edge after 1870.

More recently, business historians have looked at new topics like family businesses, how companies are run, marketing, and how British companies fit into the global economy.

Urban History

In the 1960s, historians started studying Victorian towns and cities in Britain. They looked at population changes, public health, the working class, and local culture. The cities themselves, including their buildings and spaces, became important topics.

Historians have always focused on London, but they also study smaller towns and cities, especially how they changed during the Industrial Revolution.

Deindustrialization

Historians are now looking at the topic of deindustrialization, which is when factories and mines closed down in the 1970s and 1980s. They study not only the economic reasons for these closures but also their social and cultural effects on working-class communities.

New Ways of Looking at History

Women's History

Women's history began to emerge in the 1970s. It focuses on the experiences and contributions of women throughout history, which had often been ignored by older historians.

History of Parliament

Since 1951, scholars have been working on a national "History of Parliament" project. This project involves detailed research into the lives of Members of Parliament (MPs) to understand the governing classes better.

History of the State

Historians are now exploring how the power of the state grew over time. They look at how the government collected information (like through censuses), how it managed money, and how it gained the loyalty of its people.

Global History

Some historians are now looking at a global history of Britain. This means seeing Britain's story not just as its own, but as connected to and shaped by events, processes, and people from all over the world, especially through its empires. This approach leads to new perspectives, like "Atlantic history", which connects Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Digital History

Digital history is a new way to do research using computers and online tools. Projects like the Eighteenth Century Devon project have created online collections of old documents. Digital archives and search engines make it much easier for students and researchers to find and use historical sources like old newspapers.

Organisations

British Association for Local History
Centre for Contemporary British History
Centre for Metropolitan History
Dictionary of National Biography
Economic History Society
Federation of Family History Societies
Historical Association
Historical Manuscripts Commission
History of Parliament
Institute of Historical Research
Oral History Society
Royal Historical Society
Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Genealogists
Victoria County History

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