What do you think?
Rate this book
Made in Manchester: a people's history of the city that shaped the modern world
A rich and vivid history of Britain's second city through the people who made it
‘What Manchester thinks today, England thinks tomorrow.’
Long before Manchester gave the world titans of industry, comedy, music and sport, it was the cosmopolitan Roman fort of Mamucium. But it was as the ‘shock city’ of the Industrial Revolution that Manchester really made its mark on the world stage. A place built on hard work and innovation, it is no coincidence that the digital age began here too, with the world’s first stored-program computer, Baby.
A city as radical as it is revolutionary, Manchester has always been a political hotbed. The Peterloo Massacre is immortalised in British folklore and the city was a centre for pioneering movements such as Chartism. Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst hailed from here and the city still treasures its wilful independence.
Manchester’s spirited individuality has carried through into its artistic output too, bringing the world Anthony Burgess, L.S. Lowry, Jeanette Winterson, Joy Division and Oasis. Mention United or City almost anywhere and you’ll find fans, and opinions.
Until now, this magnificent city did not have its definitive history. From the author of the bestselling Northerners, this work of unrivalled authority and breadth tells the story of a changing place and its remarkable people.
‘What Manchester thinks today, England thinks tomorrow.’
Long before Manchester gave the world titans of industry, comedy, music and sport, it was the cosmopolitan Roman fort of Mamucium. But it was as the ‘shock city’ of the Industrial Revolution that Manchester really made its mark on the world stage. A place built on hard work and innovation, it is no coincidence that the digital age began here too, with the world’s first stored-program computer, Baby.
A city as radical as it is revolutionary, Manchester has always been a political hotbed. The Peterloo Massacre is immortalised in British folklore and the city was a centre for pioneering movements such as Chartism. Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst hailed from here and the city still treasures its wilful independence.
Manchester’s spirited individuality has carried through into its artistic output too, bringing the world Anthony Burgess, L.S. Lowry, Jeanette Winterson, Joy Division and Oasis. Mention United or City almost anywhere and you’ll find fans, and opinions.
Until now, this magnificent city did not have its definitive history. From the author of the bestselling Northerners, this work of unrivalled authority and breadth tells the story of a changing place and its remarkable people.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2024
40 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 10, 2024
From a good author about the best English city, this was a lot less impressive than I was hoping for.
Brian Groom's narrative history of Manchester takes a long view of how the city has changed. It begins as a Roman settlement, enjoys a spotlight during the civil war and builds itself into 'cottonopolis'. As with so many other British cities, everything changes in the nineteenth century. Groom has a nice balance here between individual stories and social history of the city. Figures who called the city home, such as Karl Marx, Robert Angus-Smith and Richard Arkwright, are all present and preening. However it was Alfred Waterhouse, pioneering architect of the city, who I found most interesting here.
One of Groom's best skills is in how he weaves specific culture into social history. The two themes are often grouped together, but Groom is excellent at using cultural touchstones, whether the work of Elizabeth Gaskell, L.S. Lowry or Joy Division, to delineate social movements and lived experience. This is clearly demonstrated in the later chapters, when Groom plays to his talents and has chapters specifically focusing on sport, music, art and literature. However, I would have liked him to go a little further into the reaction to some of the institutional changes within the city. This is largely where the history falls short.
Too often the facts are presented in a narrative style without any commentary or response from the people at that time, or at least, with such a bland or banal response that it becomes near insubstantial. For example when discussing incorporation of notable boroughs into the larger city, it would have been interesting to dig a little deeper as to how those boroughs interacted and associated as part of Manchester. Similarly, the discussion around world war and Manchester's inter-war economic decline felt far too brief, which is often my opposite take when it comes to that topic.
It is a shame that the book leans towards a narrative history. So often it felt as if follow up analysis or comparisons had been edited away in the interests of telling the story itself. But a story without any conversation, without debate or queries or opinion, simply becomes noise. Made in Manchester is a superb introductory text, for anyone to read, about the UK's best city. But it is flat. There are so many other punchy, cocky and blustering books about Manchester that perhaps a simpler narrative work was called for. At the same time, what's so wrong about having a little swagger?
On the whole, a shame not to have enjoyed this more. It is a good overview of the greatest city on earth, though not one I would recommend too enthusiastically.
Brian Groom's narrative history of Manchester takes a long view of how the city has changed. It begins as a Roman settlement, enjoys a spotlight during the civil war and builds itself into 'cottonopolis'. As with so many other British cities, everything changes in the nineteenth century. Groom has a nice balance here between individual stories and social history of the city. Figures who called the city home, such as Karl Marx, Robert Angus-Smith and Richard Arkwright, are all present and preening. However it was Alfred Waterhouse, pioneering architect of the city, who I found most interesting here.
One of Groom's best skills is in how he weaves specific culture into social history. The two themes are often grouped together, but Groom is excellent at using cultural touchstones, whether the work of Elizabeth Gaskell, L.S. Lowry or Joy Division, to delineate social movements and lived experience. This is clearly demonstrated in the later chapters, when Groom plays to his talents and has chapters specifically focusing on sport, music, art and literature. However, I would have liked him to go a little further into the reaction to some of the institutional changes within the city. This is largely where the history falls short.
Too often the facts are presented in a narrative style without any commentary or response from the people at that time, or at least, with such a bland or banal response that it becomes near insubstantial. For example when discussing incorporation of notable boroughs into the larger city, it would have been interesting to dig a little deeper as to how those boroughs interacted and associated as part of Manchester. Similarly, the discussion around world war and Manchester's inter-war economic decline felt far too brief, which is often my opposite take when it comes to that topic.
It is a shame that the book leans towards a narrative history. So often it felt as if follow up analysis or comparisons had been edited away in the interests of telling the story itself. But a story without any conversation, without debate or queries or opinion, simply becomes noise. Made in Manchester is a superb introductory text, for anyone to read, about the UK's best city. But it is flat. There are so many other punchy, cocky and blustering books about Manchester that perhaps a simpler narrative work was called for. At the same time, what's so wrong about having a little swagger?
On the whole, a shame not to have enjoyed this more. It is a good overview of the greatest city on earth, though not one I would recommend too enthusiastically.
May 14, 2024
I am so glad I received a proof of this book! Whilst bursting with fascinating information, it never feels rushed and is entertaining all the way through.
As a student Manchester was the place to be; this book has taken me straight back to those days!
As a student Manchester was the place to be; this book has taken me straight back to those days!
Read
July 26, 2024Dit was echt een stom boek. Het was eigenlijk 250 bladzijden aan lijstjes met dingen en mensen die uit Manchester komen. Saai maar toch uitgelezen
December 26, 2025
***3.25***
August 4, 2024
Very readable - just what you want in a book packed with information and comment.
March 17, 2025
Given that I was born and bred in Manchester, how could I possibly resist a book called "Made in Manchester: A People's History of the City That Shaped the Modern World"?
Brian Groom's history takes us all the way back to the rain-drenched, sparsely populated spot the Romans chose as the place to build a fort in 79 CE in order to control the rebels in what is now Northern England. The Romans remained there for about 200 years, attracting all the usual service industries that attached themselves to Roman garrisons. After the Romans left, little was known of what was at the time a desolate place, marked then as now by its rainfall (there's an old Manchester joke: if you can see the Pennines, it's about to rain; if you can't see the Pennines, it is raining). According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", Edward the Elder (son of Alfred the Great) built a fort at Manchester. After that, it was an unimportant backwater village for hundreds of years.
However, the plentiful supply of water meant the area was ideal as a location for the new textile industry that in the 14th and 15th centuries was beginning to become increasingly important. This led to Manchester becoming an important regional capital. During the Civil War, Manchester was firmly on the side of the Parliamentarians and Cromwell rewarded the city by giving it its first Member of Parliament.
But it was the Industrial Revolution that saw Manchester becoming ever more important as the centre of cotton production. Since then, the city and in particular the Greater Manchester area continued to grow and it became not only an important industrial centre, but also a centre for the arts, culture, sport, science, religion and political activism.
Groom's book is both chronological and thematic, with the timeline interspersed with chapters on the city's political radicalism (including the horror of Peterloo, the rise of the Chartists and trade unions, the suffragette movement, the city's role in LGBT+ advancements and its multiculturalism), science and technology, the arts and literature (Manchester was the first city in the country to have a free public library open to everyone), popular culture, music (both popular and classical) and sport. It also looks at the way in recent decades Manchester has regenerated itself.
This is a fascinating book that is packed full of information, some of which was new to me: for example, I knew that Manchester had long been a key centre for popular music from George Formby to bands like the Smiths and Oasis and its importance in the folk revival with singers like Ewan MacColl (whose "Dirty Old Town" was written about Salford), but what I hadn't realised was that the city was also an important centre of classical music.
At times the book does read like a list of famous people and important achievements, but this is a small price to pay given the amount of history packed into its 276 pages.
Brian Groom's history takes us all the way back to the rain-drenched, sparsely populated spot the Romans chose as the place to build a fort in 79 CE in order to control the rebels in what is now Northern England. The Romans remained there for about 200 years, attracting all the usual service industries that attached themselves to Roman garrisons. After the Romans left, little was known of what was at the time a desolate place, marked then as now by its rainfall (there's an old Manchester joke: if you can see the Pennines, it's about to rain; if you can't see the Pennines, it is raining). According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", Edward the Elder (son of Alfred the Great) built a fort at Manchester. After that, it was an unimportant backwater village for hundreds of years.
However, the plentiful supply of water meant the area was ideal as a location for the new textile industry that in the 14th and 15th centuries was beginning to become increasingly important. This led to Manchester becoming an important regional capital. During the Civil War, Manchester was firmly on the side of the Parliamentarians and Cromwell rewarded the city by giving it its first Member of Parliament.
But it was the Industrial Revolution that saw Manchester becoming ever more important as the centre of cotton production. Since then, the city and in particular the Greater Manchester area continued to grow and it became not only an important industrial centre, but also a centre for the arts, culture, sport, science, religion and political activism.
Groom's book is both chronological and thematic, with the timeline interspersed with chapters on the city's political radicalism (including the horror of Peterloo, the rise of the Chartists and trade unions, the suffragette movement, the city's role in LGBT+ advancements and its multiculturalism), science and technology, the arts and literature (Manchester was the first city in the country to have a free public library open to everyone), popular culture, music (both popular and classical) and sport. It also looks at the way in recent decades Manchester has regenerated itself.
This is a fascinating book that is packed full of information, some of which was new to me: for example, I knew that Manchester had long been a key centre for popular music from George Formby to bands like the Smiths and Oasis and its importance in the folk revival with singers like Ewan MacColl (whose "Dirty Old Town" was written about Salford), but what I hadn't realised was that the city was also an important centre of classical music.
At times the book does read like a list of famous people and important achievements, but this is a small price to pay given the amount of history packed into its 276 pages.
April 6, 2025
Manchester is not exactly a city that hides its light under a bushel. Ask an outsider to describe the town and its inhabitants in one word and many would reply with ‘swagger’, followed closely by ‘self-aggrandising’. And, in fairness, Manchester has a lot it can boast about. The city can variously claim to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Free Market Capitalism, Trade Unionism, Socialism, Communism, Feminism, Rail Travel, Vegetarianism and – arguably most significantly – late-80s Acid House.
You might expect that such a brash city, with such an amplified sense of itself, would inspire a similarly bellicose chronicler. But Brian Groom’s history of Manchester is surprisingly subdued and pedestrian. I came to “Made in Manchester” expecting a rallying cry about how the Mancunian metropolis is ‘the greatest city on the face of the earth’ ™. Instead, this is a rote walkthrough the evolution of Manchester so bloodless and desultory that Groom could be reciting the 0161 phone book.
There are some illuminating passages in “Made in Manchester”. The city’s radical heritage is well-sketched out, and there is a welcome chapter on how Manchester’s growth has been dependent on waves of migration (whether from Ireland, the Caribbean and Africa, or the Indian sub-continent).
But in too many sections of “Made in Manchester” (I’m thinking in particular of those chapters that relate the city’s contribution to the spheres of Science, Sport, and Popular Music), Groom seems to be doing little more than pasting Wikipedia-style pen profiles on the Manchester’s famous sons and daughters who have been hugely influential in these fields. Given Brian Groom’s excellent previous work “Northerners”, this inattentiveness is doubly puzzling. But despite a strong closing section on Manchester’s post-war industrial decline and subsequent rebirth, “Made in Manchester” makes for an anaemic and unsatisfying study of a fascinating city.
You might expect that such a brash city, with such an amplified sense of itself, would inspire a similarly bellicose chronicler. But Brian Groom’s history of Manchester is surprisingly subdued and pedestrian. I came to “Made in Manchester” expecting a rallying cry about how the Mancunian metropolis is ‘the greatest city on the face of the earth’ ™. Instead, this is a rote walkthrough the evolution of Manchester so bloodless and desultory that Groom could be reciting the 0161 phone book.
There are some illuminating passages in “Made in Manchester”. The city’s radical heritage is well-sketched out, and there is a welcome chapter on how Manchester’s growth has been dependent on waves of migration (whether from Ireland, the Caribbean and Africa, or the Indian sub-continent).
But in too many sections of “Made in Manchester” (I’m thinking in particular of those chapters that relate the city’s contribution to the spheres of Science, Sport, and Popular Music), Groom seems to be doing little more than pasting Wikipedia-style pen profiles on the Manchester’s famous sons and daughters who have been hugely influential in these fields. Given Brian Groom’s excellent previous work “Northerners”, this inattentiveness is doubly puzzling. But despite a strong closing section on Manchester’s post-war industrial decline and subsequent rebirth, “Made in Manchester” makes for an anaemic and unsatisfying study of a fascinating city.
September 29, 2024
He's clearly done a lot of research and there are quite a few interesting snippets, such as the origins of buildings around town or names I see around the city but have never given much thought to. However, he's clearly tried to cover too much in less than 250 pages. A lot of this could have been written as a series of bullet-pointed facts for the level of additional detail he provides. He also compounds this by stretching to link some stuff to Manchester that could easily have been left out. I felt this was a particular issue when listing famous people with links to Manchester; some of them seemed to have spent very little time in Manchester at all, and did most of their famous work elsewhere, but got thrown into the book anyway. Manchester has enough impressive and interesting history to do without it (particularly when trying to fill only 250 pages).
March 14, 2025
I listened to the audiobook. It started out well but ended up feeling like a barrage of facts & trivia. Whilst the chapters are themed, the narrative was not cohesive in my opinion. At times, it reminded me of a high school essay written from Wikipedia being read out loud. Even the author didn’t seem engaged with his own material.
My specific irk with the audiobook version is the author’s inconsistent pronunciation of place names. Not knowing how to pronounce well known Mancunian place names feels a bit disappointing from an author with a Mancunian accent.
I’ll stick to Stuart Maconie from now on. His books contain as much information but is presented in a more engaging & fluid way with personal anecdotes & opinionated commentary (much lacking here).
My specific irk with the audiobook version is the author’s inconsistent pronunciation of place names. Not knowing how to pronounce well known Mancunian place names feels a bit disappointing from an author with a Mancunian accent.
I’ll stick to Stuart Maconie from now on. His books contain as much information but is presented in a more engaging & fluid way with personal anecdotes & opinionated commentary (much lacking here).
November 19, 2024
Unfortunately although the subject matter is fascinating, and clearly there has been a lot of detailed research, most sections felt rushed, with only some points given additional detail but seemingly for arbitrary reasons. There are cliched concluding comments to many chapters which also don’t help.
That said, I was always engaged - and for people who don’t know much about Manchesters significance in the world - I’d still say it’s recommended reading, my problem is more with stylistic choices.
That said, I was always engaged - and for people who don’t know much about Manchesters significance in the world - I’d still say it’s recommended reading, my problem is more with stylistic choices.
November 5, 2025
This is such a big subject to cover in only about 250 pages. A lot of research has gone into the book that barely skims the surface.
It would be difficult to cover pre- Roman, the Roman or the dark ages because of very little records. The book only gets going once we reach the Industrial age and yet once again it goes into little detail.
I found it inteesting but felt the author would have been better served concentrating on one aspect.
A great deal of the characters and places in the modern age I recognised and could relate to but somehow felt the book could have been so much more.
It would be difficult to cover pre- Roman, the Roman or the dark ages because of very little records. The book only gets going once we reach the Industrial age and yet once again it goes into little detail.
I found it inteesting but felt the author would have been better served concentrating on one aspect.
A great deal of the characters and places in the modern age I recognised and could relate to but somehow felt the book could have been so much more.
October 27, 2024
A good introduction into the history of Manchester. Explains the key dates and the various areas that Manchester has had an impact on as much as they did on Manchester (music, sport, etc.) I'd suggest a notebook so you can note down the various names and events that are mentioned if you want some further reading.
January 10, 2025
This book started in a very promising way, but sadly as it progressed it became purely narrative, akin to reading a Wikipedia entry rather than a thorough history. From the way it started I would have enjoyed this book to be over several parts, rather than trying to get all the researched detail into a small book
February 3, 2026
The ancient history is interesting an sets the scene well, the middle section feels like a list that can be a little randomly put together and doesn’t expand on points that would be really interesting to expand on. Last 1/4 of the book is better and has more depth looking at more recent history. Good for building understanding of the city though.
September 26, 2025
A long list with little analysis, still, the list of people and achievements with a Greater Manchester connection is impressive. A useful book for anyone who is considering emabarking on the Great Mancunian Novel.
December 27, 2025
Interesting history - social and cultural - but quite list like in the way it’s written, just ends up as narrative with 0 analysis.
The book’s first few chapters also starts off chronological then moves to a thematic structure which I didn’t appreciate.
Could’ve been a lot more.
The book’s first few chapters also starts off chronological then moves to a thematic structure which I didn’t appreciate.
Could’ve been a lot more.
August 17, 2024
Really well researched overview of Manchester, but wished it went into some detail in parts.
August 18, 2024
DNF. Too dry for me. It was like reading a school text book from the 80s.
October 17, 2024
Regularly repetitive and occasionally disorganised but within is a brilliant overview of the history of Manchester.
Would recommend.
Would recommend.
January 8, 2025
this is a great introduction to / summary of manchester. a wee bit of stuff from the olden days and then very detailed from the late 18th century.
March 9, 2025
interesting read, and thankfully only a small part on "madchester"
May 31, 2025
A good intro to Manchester's history. Some chapters felt a bit like listing and it could benefit from going more in depth, but that doesn't seem to be the purpose of the book.
June 16, 2025
had high hopes for this but its basically a glorified list. History at its most simplistic
January 2, 2026
Full of facts and plenty think about.
July 11, 2025
enjoyable, manages to touch on most things - sometimes it has to mention so many things that it almost feels like a list though
December 28, 2025
3.5 stars. Interesting but something didn't quite make it great for me.
January 19, 2026
Loved reading this book 🥰🥰 plus it’s the first city
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews