10 March 2010
BHSP will be officially launched at the Economic History Society annual conference at the University of Durham on 27 March 2010. Professor Roger Middleton initiated the project to produce a multi-volume and online edition of British Historical Statistics (the last edition was 1988 and in one, print only, volume), which is a staple reference work for all historians of Britain.
Professor Middleton will deliver the opening paper to a session which includes papers by the two other general editors (Professors Nigel Goose, University of Hertfordshire, and Michael Turner, University of Hull) and the two general editors of the Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition (HSUSME), which forms the inspiration for the British project. The launch event will be followed by a 'meet the editors' session so that those interested in becoming contributing authors and volume editors can begin the process of engagement with what will be one of the longest-term, and most expensive, projects being pursued by historians in Britain in this decade.
Publication is scheduled for c.2017 and, if the HSUSME be a guide, the total cost of the project will be a very significant six figure sum. Brief details of the project available at the BHSP website.