Rosemary Sweet

Professor Sweet explores the culture, society, and politics of eighteenth-century English towns through the lens of contemporary histories. Using her extensive knowledge of English antiquarians and exemplary research of her sources, Sweet examines civic pride and the creation of urban identity. She acknowledges that these sources were often written to serve a specific purpose beyond the academic; those very sensibilities and their diversity provide the basis for her exploration of the broader values of the authors and their social mileux. A particularly intriguing area of study is Sweet's analysis of the addresses of subscribers to urban histories; she finds that there was a very high variation in the levels of local interest in local publications. Essentially, this is a history of a niche in local history but the conclusions apply much more widely.… (meer)