Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
List of Tables
Selected Maps
1. Imagining Belfast S.J. Connolly and Gillian McIntosh
2. Beneath Our Feet: The Archaeological Record Ruairi O Baoill
3. The Medieval Settlement Philip Macdonald
4. Making Belfast, 1600-1750 Raymond Gillespie
5. Improving Town, 1750-1820 S.J. Connolly
6. Workshop of the Empire, 1820-1914 Stephen A. Royle
7. Whose City? Belonging and Exclusion in the Nineteenth-Century Urban World S.J. Connolly and Gillian McIntosh
8. An Age of Conservative Modernity, 1914-1968 Sean O’Connell
9. Titanic Town: Living in a Landscape of Conflict Dominic Bryan

Notes
Timeline
Further Reading
Notes on Contributors
Index
Subscribers to the Limited Edition

About the Author

S. J. Connolly is Professor of Irish History and Director of Research, Queens University Belfast.

Reviews

For my money it would make a perfect Christmas present for the history buff in your life. ... this book is designed to mark this year's 400th anniversary of Belfast's charter. In format and content it is high-brow-meets-coffee-table and the illustrations and maps are quite stunning. The book will make good a good present for anyone interested in the socio-politico-economic history of Belfast and wanting to get ahead of next year's commemorations. The launch of a new book on 400 years of Belfast history has marked the beginning of a year-long programme of events to commemorate the granting of the city's first charter. 'Belfast 400: People, Place and History', produced by Queen's University Belfast in partnership with Belfast City Council and Liverpool University Press, tells the story of the city's unique urban history. For the first time, the period of human settlement, from early prehistory to the present day, has been brought together in a way that makes the latest research accessible. 'Belfast 400' has been written by a team of experts on the city's history: historians, archaeologists, geographers and social scientists from Queen's University and NUI, Maynooth, led by Professor Sean Connolly from Queen's School of History and Anthropology, and supported by a GBP60,000 grant from the Leverhulme Trust. While concentrating on the period since the granting of the 1613 charter by King James I, the book - which was three years in the writing - explores the full range of Belfast's urban history, from insignificance to global industrial prominence, through urban decay to regeneration The book looks at how Belfast, beginning as a minor settlement around the muddy lowest crossing point of the river, eventually developed into one of the world's great centres of shipbuilding and linen manufacture - and the effects of this industrialisation and its subsequent decline on its citizens. It asks how the city of Belfast can now redefine its identity, and the still often fraught relationships that exist between different sections of its population, to face the challenges of the 21st century. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alderman Gavin Robinson, commented: "There have been many books written about our city's rich history, but this is undoubtedly the most ambitious, and also the most timely, coinciding as it does with the 400th anniversary of the granting of the original charter. It will be a worthy addition to the canon of literature on our city, and no doubt will be essential reading for everyone with an interest in the story of what has made the Belfast we know today." The book's editor, Professor Connolly, added: "This is one of those opportunities that comes along once or twice in a career. Over the past few years specialists in several fields have started to show us just how much there is to be discovered about Belfast past and present. I have been very lucky in being given the opportunity to draw the results of all that work together into an overview that should make anyone interested in Belfast look at the city in a new light." Alison Welsby, Editorial Director of Liverpool University Press, commented: "Liverpool University Press is very proud to be publishing this landmark publication. Professor Connolly is one of the leading historians on Belfast. He and his team of contributors have crafted a compelling study of a city whose rich urban history has often been overshadowed." 'Belfast 400' is available in both hardback (rrp GBP35) and paperback (rrp GBP14.95), and also as a special limited edition slip-cased volume priced at GBP100, from www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk, Amazon, Waterstones, and all good bookshops across Belfast and Northern Ireland. The book's official launch marks the start of a programme of events to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the city's first charter, by King James I, in June 1613. Other planned events include seminars and talks, themed walking tours and a family festival over the Easter weekend. There have been many books written about our city's rich history, but this is undoubtedly the most ambitious, and also the most timely, coinciding as it does with the 400th anniversary of the granting of the original charter. It will be a worthy addition to the canon of literature on our city, and no doubt will be essential reading for everyone with an interest in the story of what has made the Belfast we know today. In a book celebrating both the anniversary of Belfast's first charter in 1613 and the end of its more recent Troubles, a chequered history emerges: a small, inauspiciously located private town becomes one of the great boom cities of the British Empire. Buildings including the magnificent City Hall of 1906 and the Titanic museum of 2012 flag high points in an epic story.