LOCAL AND REGIONAL HISTORY SERIES FOR THE NORTHERN COUNTIES: A SURVEY AND ASSESSMENT.

Since the late nineteenth century several projects for the publication of county and regional history have envisaged a series with complete national coverage (referring here to England only). They have met with varying degrees of success, both in terms of completeness and of quality. Their inspiration has been variously academic or commercial, sometimes ambitiously seeking to satisfy both aspirations, and they have been aimed at different markets. This paper reviews these various series insofar as they have concerned the seven northern counties, seeking to assess their value and to consider both contemporary responses and retrospective appraisals of their merits and defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]