The book is a selection of essays from the author's work since the early 1980s. It presents an analysis of political and cultural trends based upon a series of case studies drawn from the North West of England, covering mainly the years between the Third Reform Act (1884) and the outbreak of the Second World War. The region was a heavily industrialized one, seen by many as in the vanguard of changes that gave rise to what is often referred to as 'modern' society. In politics the emergence in North West England of a new labour consciousness is plainly evident, but so too is the survival and adaptation of older political allegiances, notably popular Toryism. The region is also renowned in cultural terms for the emergence of modern sport, examined here in relation to both association football and cricket. Keenly aware of the general political, social and cultural developments in Britain and elsewhere during these years, the author is also alert to their impact in particular localities. The theme of locality has been a recurring one in the author's research, and the composition of this book reflects his changing approaches to it and to other, related issues of identity.

Contents: Lancashire and the North West - The Lancashire Miners, Thomas Greenall and the Labour Party, 1900-1906 - Social Democracy and the Labour Movement: the Social-Democratic Federation in Lancashire - Manchester and Salford Politics and the Early Development of the Independent Labour Party - Lib-Labism, Socialism and Labour in Burnley, c. 1890-1918 - Politics, Gender, and 'New' Toryism: Lancashire in the 1920s - Cricket and the Imperial Connection: Overseas Players in Lancashire in the Interwar Years - A Hero in the Text: Race, Class and Gender Narratives in the Life of Learie Constantine - Rite of Spring: Cup Finals and Community in the North of England - Howard Jacobson's The Mighty Walzer and Manchester.