Develops an understanding of Warwickshire's past for outsiders and those already engaged with the subject, and to explore questions which apply in other regions, including those outside the United Kingdom.Published to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Dugdale Society, which publishes Warwickshire's records, this book brings together a range of scholars - early career researchers, tenured academics, independent scholars and an archivist - all with records of excellence in research and writing, who cover a range of political, social, economic, cultural, architectural and religious subjects from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries. Besides providing original and well-researched interpretations of Warwickshire's past, the book goes further to discuss and analyse the ways in which writing of local history has changed over the last hundred years, paying particular attention to meanings and explanations that have emerged in recent times, from which future developments can be expected. As such the book will appeal not just to those interested in the local history of Warwickshire, but also to everyone concerned with local history in general, and how it should be studied and written.

List of IllustrationsNotes on Contributors Foreword Sir William DugdaleAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction Christopher Dyer1. The Dugdale Society: Its First Hundred YearsRobert Bearman2. The Beginnings of Coventry Peter Coss3. Was Commerce in Late Medieval Coventry Restricted by Regulation?Richard Goddard4. Studying Late Medieval Small Towns in Warwickshire 1920-2020Andrew Watkins5. Rural Warwickshire in the Middle Ages: Society and LandscapeChristopher Dyer6. Religion, Rebellion and Red Jackets: Changing Approaches to Society and Politics in Sixteenth-century Warwickshire Cathryn Enis7. Social Networks, Intellectual Affinities and Communal Harmony in Post-Reformation WarwickshireSusan M. Cogan8. Discovering Warwickshire's Vernacular ArchitectureNat Alcock9. Local History and the English Civil War: A View from WarwickshireAnn Hughes10. Writing Histories of the Landed Elite in Georgian WarwickshireJon Stobart 11. The Victoria County History in WarwickshireJohn Beckett12. Writing Women into the Political History of WarwickshireSarah Richardson13. Shakespeare and the Warwickshire Landscape in the Age of the TouristCatherine RichardsonConclusion Christopher DyerIndex