William Hutton and the Myths of Birmingham

Abstract

William Hutton’s History of Birmingham, first published in 1782, has become a classic eighteenth-century town history, much used by historians of Birmingham and of eighteenth-century Britain more generally. This article examines the influence of Hutton’s History on the historiography of Birmingham from its publication to the present day. It argues that Hutton set out two issues which have dominated histories of the town throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the importance of civic and religious freedom to Birmingham’s economic growth and the unusual levels of social mobility in the town. These issues have become the two great myths about Birmingham. Identifying their origins in the propertied culture of late eighteenth-century Birmingham will allow historians to move beyond old interpretations of the nature of industrial capitalism in Birmingham.