Making of Manchester

A concise history of the Northern English city from its Roman origins to today’s metropolitan hub.

In The Making of Manchester, author Mike Fletcher shows how this thriving city has made and re-made itself through the centuries. Beginning as a Roman settlement anchored by the fort of Mancunium, it was later conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, who renamed the region Manchester, meaning “Men of the Fort.”

In the Medieval and Early Modern periods, Manchester survived hostile forces of all kinds, from the English Civil Wars to the rising of the Jacobites. Yet Manchester changed its image during the Industrial Revolution, becoming Cottonpolis, and the center of the canal and railway network. Yet along with prosperity, the city faced hardship and poverty which lingered well into the twentieth century.