Our history

History was first taught at Manchester in the 1850s by Professor Richard Copley Christie.

In 1922, the 'Manchester School of History' became the primary centre for historical research outside Oxford and Cambridge.

The main activities of the School were:

  • advanced study and research,
  • the teaching of University students,
  • popularisation of history.

These activities remain central to the current History department.

Historical research

Mabel Tylecote
Mabel Tylecote, 1 Rusholme Gardens, Manchester (late 1970's or early 1980's).

Original research has always been at the heart of History at Manchester. Historians at Manchester have been at the forefront of developing historiographical debate and theory.

For example:

  • Professor George Unwin was the only professor of economic history in the British Empire.
  • In the 1930s and 1940s, Professor Lewis Namier completely revolutionised the study of eighteenth-century politics in focusing on social relationships and collective biography;
  • In the 1950s, Harold Perkin was the first person in the country to hold the title of 'Lecturer in Social History'
  • 1980s and 1990s, Patrick Joyce questioned exactly what 'the social' meant and History at Manchester became a centre for theoretically-informed cultural history.

Find out more about our former historians:

Research-led teaching

From its earliest history the History division has treated its students as trainee historians.

In 1907 Manchester was the first history department in the country to introduce the undergraduate dissertation, where students were supervised in the production of a substantial piece of original work.

At this time historical education was concerned merely with conveying facts rather than developing research skills. Eventually the dissertation became the cornerstone of an undergraduate historical education.

Our department was one of the first three departments in the country to award PhDs in history in the early 1920s.

In the 1970s and 1980s Manchester's history of interdisciplinary enquiry to joint programmes with other disciplines, in particular the social sciences.

In the media

Historians at Manchester were keen to make the most of media coverage to promote history:

  • Tout and AJP Taylor wrote articles for The Manchester Guardian between 1910 and 1940.
  • Florence M. Grier Evans made a series of broadcasts for the local BBC radio station between 1910 and 1940.
  • In the mid-1950s, Harold Perkin became the historian in residence for the north-west Granada news programme.

Local historical groups and community history

Tout and his staff helped to found the Manchester branch of the Historical Association in 1906, one of the very first in the country.

Professor George Unwin set up Workers' Education classes and the University Settlement in 1895 to bring art and culture to Manchester's poor.

Manchester historians have played an important part in lobbying for and promoting the interests of History as an academic subject. Ward and Tout were early president of the Royal Historical Society.

The Department of History had and still has a lively History Students' Society, see their songbook from the 1920s.