This title was first published in 2000. Practised since the Middle Ages, it is only over the course of the last century that English local history attained professional status. This text explores the rich historiography of the subject by presenting essays which show how it has been defined, approached and practised at different stages of its development from the 16th century to the present day. Essays on individual historians - Camden, Thoroton, Hasted and Milner - stand side by side with others documenting general trends. the editor's concluding essay offers comparisons and contrasts between the concept and practice of local history in England with the developments in the USA.

Try to rest in the knowledge that many unseen forces are working diligently on your behalf and that truth, like a flower, opens in its own time. Right now, you are observing the bud. It is beautiful in its own way, as is every stage of the blooming process. Observing a bud for the very first time, one would never suspect what it will become. Your mind is also a bud. You have no comprehension of all that you don't know. Make no judgments regarding all that you have to consider right now. Wait for the bloom to appear.