A tale of two libraries - Mancunian candidate - Columnist - Columnist - News - South Manchester Reporter
A tale of two libraries
Ryan Davies
3/ 4/2008
EVERYONE should try being a tourist in their home town every once in a while.
Most years we traipse off to sunny and exotic destinations and dutifully follow the trail of visitors around the recommended list of museums, beauty spots and other sites of interest.
But, for some reason, it is rare for many of us to make the time to see the history on our doorstep.
And when you live in a city with the incredible history we have here, that’s nothing short of criminal.
Not so long ago, Manchester was the most important city in the world; a soot-stained metropolis that dragged the human race kicking and screaming into an industrial age full of wonders and horrors.
What happened here changed the world forever. So just where are all the museums and exhibitions telling the incredible story of how the industrial revolution found a foothold in Manchester from which to transform the globe?
Perhaps, it’s something to do with a Mancunian spirit that is too inclined to self-effacement and a no-nonsense intolerance of self-importance that makes us reluctant to shout of our own significance to the rest of the world.
Or perhaps it is just that Manchester’s history is not the kind that those who control the public purse-strings want to be told.
After all, while the temples to the glory of the industrial age are grander elsewhere, it was in Manchester where the worst excesses of capitalism were laid bare for all to see.
The history of Manchester has always been about the people. It was the place where working people as a class were most confident and radical, and where the human cost of industrialisation was most apparent. Perhaps this is another reason why the powers-that-be are rather hesitant when it comes to telling the great story of Cottonopolis.
cont…..
