Five swans over Littleport: fenland folklore and popular memory, c. 1810-1978

Wood, Andy

Abstract

This chapter uses fenland folklore as a way of thinking about the importance of the local. It argues against grand narratives of globalization, to suggest instead that for many working people in the past it was in the context of the small community that social relations were made real and popular culture was felt and sensed. The piece therefore offers a corrective to current—elitist and statist—emphases upon ‘Big History’ and suggests instead that, if social historians are to understand the lived experience of working people in the past, it is necessary to return to local worlds and small communities.

Citation

Wood, A. (2017). Five swans over Littleport: fenland folklore and popular memory, c. 1810-1978. In J. H. Arnold, M. Hilton, & J. Rüger (Eds.), History after Hobsbawm : writing the past for the twenty-first century (225-241). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198768784.003.0012

• Online Publication Date: Nov 2, 2017
• Publication Date: Nov 2, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 13, 2018
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 225-241
• Book Title: History after Hobsbawm : writing the past for the twenty-first century.
• Chapter Number: 12
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198768784.003.0012
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1660378