(Ebook) Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day by Brian Groom ISBN 9780008471217, 0008471215

(Ebook) Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day by Brian Groom ISBN 9780008471217, 0008471215

A work of unrivalled scale & ambition, Northerners is the defining biography of northern England.This authoritative new history of place & people lays out the dramatic events that created the north – waves of migration, invasions & battles, & transformative changes wrought on European culture & the global economy. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from the earliest times to the present day, the book shows that the people of the north have shaped Britain & the world in unexpected ways.At least 6 Roman emperors ruled from York. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was Europe’s leading cultural & intellectual centre. Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes, deserves to be as famous as Boudica. Neanderthals & Vikings, Central European Jews, African-Caribbeans & South Asians, have all played their part in the making & remaking of the north. Northern writers, activists, artists & comedians are celebrated the world over, from Wordsworth, the Brontes & Gaskell to LS Lowry, Emmeline Pankhurst & Peter Kay. St Oswald & Bede shaped the spiritual & cultural landscapes of Britain & Europe, & the world was revolutionised by the inventions of Richard Arkwright & the Stephensons. The north has exported some of sport’s biggest names & defined the sound of generations, from the Beatles to Britpop.Northerners also shows convincingly how the past echoes down the centuries. The devastation of factory & pit closures in the 1980s, for example, recalled the trauma of William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North. The book charts how the north-south divide has ebbed & flowed &explores the very real divisions between northerners, such as the rivalry between Lancashire & Yorkshire.Finally, Brian Groom explores what northernness means today & the crucial role the north can play in Britain’s future, as new forces threaten the fabric of the UK again.