Thread: Local Histories
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Old 12-04-2010, 07:37 PM   #1
MV64
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Local Histories

Well, my first semester of grad school is finished and I'm going to return to working on the local history book I began in the summer. I learned a lot more about writing local history and as a side-effect of researching for a paper for class I discovered a wealth of information never before published in books about my area.

That being said, I can't decide how best to ORGANIZE the book. If there are any local history writers out there, I'd like some tips:

Should I organize it based on themes? (I.e The Early Days, Immigration, Labor, Law Enforcement, Business, etc.) The pro is that people can find what they want in the book and it makes it so I don't have to make everything flow necessarily. The con is that this would make it like so many other local histories, lacking a narrative and would take away originality.

Or should I organize it like a traditional narrative, starting at the beginning and going further along the timeline, dealing with important events and people as they appear? The pro is that this is much more readable and would present my town in a much more interesting light. The con is that so much I would cover overlaps and would lead to some backtracking that could make the narrative choppy.

Any ideas or recommendations?
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