(click on above picture to view)
An impression of life on the Liverpool waterfront about
1680. The stretch of sand is today The Strand (behind the Royal Liver
Building) and the road going left behind the tower is Water Street. The
cream-coloured building in the centre is the third Liverpool Customs
House. Below we see the same location today.
To see the city grow, click on the
map.
Before the war of 1939-45, history informs us in considerable detail of the lives of heads of state, politicians, generals, explorers etc., and how their exploits changed the course of events, but the stories of ordinary people were not regarded in the same manner. History was about the growth of the Empire, constitutional theory, progress through the effects of industrial revolution, inventions, discoveries and conquests. Great figures in society featured in the biographies of the period - many personalities kept diaries and told their own story.
In the aftermath of the
war things changed. Historians such as Edward Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and
John Saville, pushed forward the idea of "history from below", whereby the
culture, struggles and aspirations of ordinary people began to be taken
into account. Previously overlooked or ignored, the history of women in
society was studied more, and as minds were expanded by the growth of
feminism, the amount of literature was also enlarged. People want their
stories to be told and with the advent of recorded oral histories, the
experiences of ordinary working people are now being
heard.While many valuable and informative histories of the city have been written, starting with that by Ramsay Muir in 1907, it is only in recent years that the achievements and endeavours of ordinary people have been published. A lot more still needs to be done. An "ordinary" history would cover topics such as working and housing conditions, experiences and effects of unemployment, religion, migration, the role of women, culture and other aspects of people's lives, thereby encouraging the people of Liverpool to take part in this project.