This paper argues that the local weekly newspaper was the most popular platform for the publishing of history in the 19th century. This finding, based on quantitative content analysis, has far-reaching implications for the history of publishing, for historiography, and for the history of journalism. The paper gives a brief background to the scale and content of local newspaper publishing, presents the quantitative evidence for newspapers’ leading role in history publishing, and compares the quantity of content published in newspapers, magazines and books. A typology of historical content in local newspapers is offered, with examples including chronologies, news of archaeological finds, dedicated ‘Notes and Queries’-style columns, folklore, dialect and wholesale scholarly transcription of historical sources. While historical topics from across the world were covered, the focus was on local history. This huge mass of history writing was produced mainly by gentleman amateurs, local newspaper editors, and readers, all part of a ‘local history community’ (Kidd). These individuals also wrote books and articles for transactions of learned societies and for popular magazines. Local history material often moved from the columns of local newspapers into books, usually published from the same newspaper office. The scale of 19th-century local newspaper publishing and the popularity of local history articles, suggests that historical writing, often of a high scholarly standing, reached all levels of society, regardless of class, gender or literacy. The volume of history (and many other genres) disseminated in this way places the weekly local newspaper at the centre of 19th-century writing and publishing. The paper engages with the conference theme in two ways. First, history is part of the language of journalism as a discursive field (Zelizer and Tenenboim-Weinblatt, eds), seen in historical context, chronologies and commemorations, for example. These and other journalistic discourses gain added power when allied to local identities, for which memory and continuity are central. Place, and sense of place, deserve more attention in book history. Second, the centrality of newspapers and magazines in 19th-century publishing once again highlights the difficulties of the term ‘history of the book’. The bulk of 19th-century publishing -- in terms of material objects produced, volume of material of almost any genre published, numbers of writers and numbers of readers -- is in fact the publishing of newspapers and magazines, with books in distant third place. But the language of ‘book history’ misleads us and distorts our scholarship.

1. Andrew Hobbs University of Central Lancashire, UK ahobbs2@uclan.ac.uk @hobbb
Research assistance: Joanne Card
L'histoire comme discours journalistique dans les
journaux locaux Britanniques du 19e siècle
History as journalistic discourse in 19th
-century British local newspapers

2. @hobbb
Diary of Thomas
Tyldesley,
Lancashire Jacobite
officer, 1712-14
Transcribed and serialised in local
newspaper, 1871
Revised and re-published
as book, 1873

3. Cette écriture de l’histoire était le produit d'un système complexe qui
relie les histoires locales et nationales et la publication des journaux et
des livres.
3 éléments:
@hobbb
Des journaux Des livres Des historiens locaux
John Harland,
antiquary,
Manchester
Guardian
chief reporter

4. Et alors?
•L'histoire est une partie de la langue du journalisme,
un moyen journalistique de l'écriture
•La centralité de journaux et de magazines -- plutôt
que des livres -- a l'édition du 19ème siècle montre les
difficultés du terme «histoire du livre»
@hobbb

5. The majority of periodical titles were provincial …

6. The majority of periodical titles were provincial …

7. (Stamp Returns, Newspaper Press Directory)
@hobbb
Le journal provincial
hebdomadaire - pas le journal
quotidien de Londres - était le
journal 19C typique

8. 1811: How much history in
books?
170 books and new editions published in 1890 (COPAC
catalogue of copyright libraries and research university
libraries, 10% sample)
x average no. of words per book in that category (92,000
words)
= 16 million words of history in books
@hobbb

9. 1811: How much history in magazines?
Ladies’ Museum and Gentleman’s Magazine: average 193,000
words for 1811
x no. of English magazines (approx 152 in 1811, Waterloo
Directory, 50% sample)
= 29 million words of history in magazines
@hobbb

10. 1811: How much history in the local paper?
Liverpool Mercury (weekly): 12,000 words in 6 sampled issues
= 174,000 words per year
x no. of English weekly newspapers (approx 150, Waterloo
Directory 50% sample)
= 26 million words of history in local weekly newspapers
@hobbb

11. 1890: How much history in
books?
430 books and new editions published in 1890 (COPAC
catalogue of copyright libraries and research university
libraries)
x average no. of words per book in that category (224,000
words)
= 96 million words of history in books
@hobbb

12. 1890: How much history in magazines?
Academy and Girl’s Own Paper: average 60,000 words for 1890
x no. of British/Irish magazines (Eliot: approx 1,901 in 1890)
= 115 million words of history in magazines
@hobbb

13. 1890: How much history in the local paper?
Lancaster Gazette: 52,000 words in 24 sampled issues (of total
104 issues per year)
= 225,000 words per year
x no. of English weekly newspapers (approx 1000 in 1890)
= 225 million words of history in local weekly newspapers
@hobbb

14. Estimated word count of historical writing
by publishing platform, 1811 and 1890
(millions)
1811 1890
Books 16 96
Magazines 29 115
English local papers 26 225
@hobbb

15. @hobbb

16. Les contenus historiques dans les journaux
locaux
@hobbb
Genres Formats
Contexte historique à des reportages
contemporains
‘Notes & Queries’ colonnes, écrites par
les lecteurs
Chronologie Colonnes d'histoire dédiés et séries
Biographie , mémoires et souvenirs Rapports et résumés des conférences
Extraits de documents historiques Guides touristiques
Topographie Ecriture en dialecte
Folklore, légendes , coutumes et
superstitions
Dessins, cartes, photographies,
diagrammes
Architecture Poésie
Archéologie Fiction
Critiques de livres et extraits

17. Terroir, le sens du lieu, créé
émotionnellement par la mémoire
Introduction to local history
column
Burnley Advertiser
17 January 1880
@hobbb

18. Les historiens amateurs
• Des amateurs-gentilhomme
• Des enseignants
• Des membres du clergé
• Des hommes d'affaires
• Des journalistes
• Des personnes de toutes les classes sociales
@hobbb
Joseph Gillow
Anthony Hewitson

19. Des journaux aux livres: Gillow et Hewitson
révisé leur édition Preston Chronicle du journal
intime de Tyldesley, envoyés pour examen par les
pairs, et publiés comme un livre du même bureau
du journal - typique
@hobbb
Transcribed and serialised in
local newspaper, 1871
Revised and re-published
as book, 1873

20. Conclusions
• Une grande quantité d' écriture historique a été publié dans la presse
locale , pour atteindre tous les niveaux de la société sans distinction
de classe , de genre ou de l'alphabétisation
• L'histoire locale a le pouvoir de rendre les lieux ordinaires sacré, à
donner un sens à des endroits éloignés des centres de pouvoir
culturel
• L'écriture historique est souvent un discours journalistique
• Le journalisme est plus de nouvelles et le journalisme ne se produit
pas exclusivement par les journalistes
• La «langue du livre" manque parfois le vocabulaire pour décrire les
complexités distinctives des journaux et magazines
@hobbb