Muir's History of Liverpool is one of the classic histories of the city. This book tells the history of Liverpool in a lucid, captivating and forthright manner. By resisting the temptation to become ensnared by the minutiae of historical detail, Muir ensures that his narrative never flags as he traces the story of the rise of Liverpool from its obscure origins as a tiny hamlet of little of no significance to its status as a great international trading port and city. It is a fascinating and at times even a thrilling tale. The chapters consider Liverpool's development by historical period, and cover among other things, the geographical disadvantages faced by Liverpool and how the burgesses, merchants and Town Council overcame them; how Liverpool became a borough; the social conditions of the town; the effects of various foreign wars; the effect of the English Civil War; how the town's trade and wealth grew; the slave trade; piracy and privateering; the age of inventions; how the artistic and intellectual life of the city began to flourish; and the progress made in the nineteenth century. This book is a reproduction of the 1907 edition. It has been painstakingly re-typeset, and the images scanned at high resolution to provide a quality product at an affordable price. The text is unchanged apart from a few very minor adjustments, and although the punctuation is largely as it appears in the 1907 edition, there are some changes, principally in modernising the punctuation of quotations. The index has been slightly amended.