Liverpool: past, present and future

Liverpool’s designation as European Capital of Culture for 2008, together with the 800th anniversary of the founding of the borough in 2007, has (unsurprisingly) generated a number of books dealing with different aspects of the city’s history. The five volumes reviewed here represent just a small selection of those available, ranging from the deliberately academic to much more popular publications. Together they provide much of interest for urban historians. If these books have a common theme it is the argument (or assumption) that for much of its history, and in many different respects, Liverpool was (and remains) in various ways different from other British cities. The celebration of difference lies very much at the heart of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture activities, and these books provide additional perspectives on Liverpool’s demographic, social, cultural, sporting and architectural distinctiveness. Liverpool, 1660–1750 is the product of a detailed research project at the University of Liverpool, directed by Michael Power who sadly died before the publication of this volume. It is an important book. There are very few comprehensive demographic studies of large British cities and this volume is a significant contribution to the literature. Chapter 1 provides useful context for the demographic analysis that follows but it would have been helpful if there had been more attempt to compare Liverpool to other places. Chapter 2 gets right to the heart of the study. It is a detailed and painstaking reconstruction of Liverpool’s demographic history using family reconstitution from parish registers. Having outlined some of the problems of dealing with such sources, the authors examine aspects of mortality, fertility and migration, emphasizing the high infant mortality (especially amongst mariners’ families) and also stressing the problems of