Aberdeen is a city shaped by its geography, climate and architecture. Like the land from which it grew, it projects qualities of hard work and fortitude, firm solidity, a bold self-confidence and soaring aspiration. It is a city with a character and personality that reflects its people. Conservative and ’canny’ in some senses, it has often been radical and innovative in its politics and in tackling social issues.
This book provides an understanding of the huge changes that have taken place in Aberdeen’s economic and social structure over the past 200 years, from the age of textiles to the age of oil. It analyses changes in work patterns, housing, education, economy, social welfare, religion, local government, leisure and culture, and discusses the effects of national and international market forces, periods of instability and high growth, and political struggles. It features many of the people who played an important part in this period of Aberdeen’s history. This lavishly-illustrated and scholarly history by thirteen leading historians, economists, political scientists and geographers, and with an introduction by the distinguished journalist, James Naughtie, clearly shows that, like its granite buildings, grey in the rain but sparkling afterwards, Aberdeen has survived economic upheavals and the disruption of two world wars, emerging as an independent city with a deep sense of its own worth and values.
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