Peopling of London: Fifteen Thousand Years of Settlement from Overseas

The editor and 15 contributing authors take a long neglected aspect of London history and present it in a highly readable and well-organized format. All the usual high points of British/London history are included here--the Norman Conquest, Restoration, etc.--but they are given a new slant and presented through the eyes of the many immigrant cultures represented in the text: Arabs, Asians, Africans, Poles, Spaniards and Vietnamese are all included. Readers learn not only why these groups came to London, but how they carved a place for themselves amidst an often unwelcoming society. Since many Eastern European refugees were not taught any skilled trades in their home countries, the majority of them were reduced to working as cheap labor in the London sweatshops. Those newcomers who did have a trade, such as the French Huguenots in the silk-weaving industry, set up their own communities just outside the walls of the city. The stories of each of these people is allotted a separate chapter, allowing space enough for the origins and growth of their presence in London to be explored fully. The format of the book is a researcher's dream, as it includes a time line, a section on museums, libraries and other resource addresses for further study and a nine-page bibliography. Regardless of how learned a reader may be on the history of London, he or she is guaranteed to learn something new in this unique offering. (July)