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Professor Carl Stephen Alfred Chinn MBE is a historian, writer, radio presenter, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, media personality, industrial campaigner, local celebrity, and famous Brummie, whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham in England.
Career
Born in Moseley to parents from Sparkbrook and Aston, Chinn grew up in Birmingham and initially followed his father and grandfather into bookmaking before entering academia, gaining his Ph.D. in 1986.
His work in the community made him a popular figure, and in 1994 he was invited by the Birmingham Evening Mail to write a two-page feature on local history. This proved extremely popular and Chinn has written a weekly column for the paper ever since.
Chinn holds the position of Professor of Community History at the University of Birmingham and is also director of the Birmingham Lives project at South Birmingham College. He is the author of over twenty books on the history of Birmingham and the urban working class in England. He presents a weekly radio programme on BBC WM and often appears on local television programmes such as Midlands Today.
In 2000 Chinn was a leading figure in the successful campaign to save the Longbridge car factory from closure. In 2001 he was awarded the MBE for services to local history and charity. When the rebuilt Bull Ring was opened in 2003 Chinn criticised it for the lack of concern its developers and planners had shown towards market traders who had been the mainstay of the Bull Ring for the 800 years up to 1964, when the much-criticised previous shopping centre was built on the site [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/3078514.stm).
Politics
It has been widely suggested that if Birmingham were to introduce direct mayoral elections as in London and some other towns in the UK, Carl Chinn would have a very good chance of success if he ran as an independent, and he has said in the past that he has considered this possibility. As with Ken Livingstone, support for his candidacy would likely eclipse the usual divisions along party lines.
Chinn, however, is something of an unknown quantity politically. His support for working-class causes like council housing and the threatened jobs of the Longbridge workers, his efforts to champion working-class culture and identity, and his criticism of what he sees as the ravages of capitalism and the rise of individualism, often create the impression that he is a socialist. However, he has not made such views explicit, and in the 1980s he was briefly a member of the Social Democratic Party, which broke from Labour in protest at its perceived leftward shift, and later went on to merge with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats. He stood in the 1983 general election as an independent, campaigning for a reduction in betting tax in order to draw attention to what he regarded as discrimination against bookmaking, which was his profession at the time.
Bibliography
- They Worked All Their Lives: Women of the Urban Poor in England, 1880–1939 (1988) Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719024374.
- Homes For People: Council Housing and Urban Renewal in Birmingham 1840–1999 (1989) Birmingham Books. Expanded and revised edition (1999) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-138-9.
- Keeping the City Alive: Twenty-one years of Urban Renewal in Birmingham (1993) Birmingham City Council.
- Birmingham: The Great Working City (1994) Birmingham City Council.
- Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Urban Poor in England, 1834–1914 (1995) Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719039908.
- Brum Undaunted: Birmingham During the Blitz (1996) Birmingham Library Services.
- Our Brum (1997) Birmingham Evening Mail.
- The Cadbury Story: A Short History (1998) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-105-2.
- Our Brum: Volume 2 (1998) Birmingham Evening Mail.
- 1,000 Years of Brum (1999) Birmingham Evening Mail.
- From Little Acorns Grow: History of the West Bromwich Building Society (1999) Brewin Books. ISBN 1858581249.
- Our Brum: Volume 3 (1999) Birmingham Evening Mail.
- Brum and Brummies (2000) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-181-8.
- "We Ain't Going Away!": The Battle for Longbridge (2000) Brewin Books. Co-authored with Steve Dyson. ISBN 1-85858-174-5.
- Proper Brummie: A Dictionary of Birmingham Words and Sayings (2001) Brewin Books. Co-authored with Steve Thorne. ISBN 1-85858-227-X.
- Brum and Brummies: Volume 2 (2001) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-202-4.
- Birmingham: Bibliography of a City (Ed.) (2001) University of Birmingham Press. ISBN 1902459245.
- Brum and Brummies: Volume 3 (2002) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-213-X.
- Birmingham Irish: Making Our Mark (2003) Birmingham City Council. ISBN 070930241X.
- The Streets of Brum: Part One (2003) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-245-8.
- Better Betting with a Decent Feller: A Social History of Bookmaking (2004) Aurum Press. ISBN 184513009X.
- Black Country Memories (2004) Brewin Books. ISBN 1858582660.
- The Streets of Brum: Part Two (2004) Brewin Books. ISBN 1858582628.
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