Professor Carl Stephen Alfred Chinn MBE (born 6 September 1956) is a historian, writer, radio presenter, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, media personality, local celebrity, and famous Brummie, whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham in England. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Brummie (sometimes Brummy) is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, UK, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum. ... This article is about the city in England. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ...

Career

Born in Moseley to parents from Sparkbrook and Aston, Chinn grew up in Birmingham and was educated at Moseley School. He initially followed his father and grandfather into bookmaking before entering academia, gaining his Ph.D. in 1986. It's focus on the objectionable oohs and aahs of Jasper Carrot was of limited interest in even Birmingham but was widely praised by Mary Hopkin, Isla St Clair and brought him to the attention of the Electric Light Orchestra. Moseley Park during the 2003 festival Moseley is a suburb of Birmingham, England, located 2 miles to the south of the city centre. ... Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency shown within Birmingham Sparkbrook is an area in south-east Birmingham, England. ... Aston is an area of Birmingham, England, in the north-east of the city centre. ... Moseley School (incorporating Spring Hill College) is a large comprehensive in the Moseley area of Birmingham, England. ... A bookmaker, bookie or turf accountant, is an organisation or a person that takes bets and may pay winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds. ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ...

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. The Birmingham Evening Mail is one of the main newspapers for Birmingham, UK. It is a tabloid newspaper that often runs local campaigns. ...

Chinn holds the position of Professor of Community History at the University of Birmingham and is also director of the Birmingham Lives project. 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, often appears on local television programmes such as Midlands Today and also writes a weekly local history for the Express & Star. Website http://www. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... The Mailbox, home to BBC WMs studios in Birmingham BBC WM is the BBC Local Radio service for the West Midlands and South Staffordshire, and Warwickshire operated by BBC Birmingham. ... BBC Midlands Today is the BBCs regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which is comprised of The West Midlands county, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire. ... The Express & Star is an evening newspaper founded in Wolverhampton in the 1880s. ...

In 2000 Chinn was a leading figure in the temporarily-successful, but eventually doomed, 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]. Chinn has also been prominent in the campaigns to save the last back-to-back houses in Birmingham, now a National Trust Museum in Inge Street; and for a memorial to the victims of the Second World War Blitz on the City, which has recently been sited in Edgbaston Street in the Bull Ring. The Longbridge plant is a formerly illustrious car factory in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, England. ... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority... Selfridges at the Bullring St Martins Church, with Selfridges in the background The interior of the Bullring The Bull Ring market has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages. ...

Chinn can also be seen as a professional self-publicist and bandwagon jumper. An opportunistic hi-jacker of the available and convenient issue and which is put to full use in his column of subjective 'history' in the Birmingham Post & Mail. For example, his knowledge of Ireland extends to his marriage into an Irish family line and is relfective of a second-hand view of Irish Birmingham life rather than the first-hand view of his Irish wife which would be more accurate and authentic. Chinn has been accused of having a regional blindsight, a cockeyed view of historical accuracy and of being a poor man's David Starkey with an anthropological asbo.

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. In the United Kingdom, the office of Mayor or Lord Mayor (Provost and Lord Provost in Scotland) had long been ceremonial posts, with little or no duties attached to it. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born June 17, 1945), is an English politician who has been the Mayor of London since the creation of the post in 2000. ...

It is also widely realised that these 'suggestions' have come from Chinn himself.

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 import controls to protect local industry, more investment in council housing and a return of capital punishment for certain offences. De Beauvoir Estate, De Beauvoir Town, East London The council house is a form of public housing found in the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook, that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... In politics, left-wing, the political left or simply the left are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of, to varying extents, liberalism, socialism, green politics, anarchism, communism, social democracy, progressivism, American liberalism or social liberalism, and defined in... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party based in the United Kingdom. ... The UK general election, 1983 was held on June 9, 1983 and gave the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945. ...

Family

Chinn's parents are Alfred and Sylvia. He was married in 1978 to Kathleen Doyle: they have a son and three daughters. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Bibliography

• They Worked All Their Lives: Women of the Urban Poor in England, 1880–1939 (1988) Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-2437-4.
• 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 0-7190-3990-8.
• 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 1-85858-124-9.
• 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 1-902459-24-5.
• Brum and Brummies: Volume 3 (2002) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-213-X.
• Birmingham Irish: Making Our Mark (2003) Birmingham City Council. ISBN 0-7093-0241-X.
• 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 1-84513-009-X.
• Black Country Memories (2004) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-266-0.
• The Streets of Brum: Part Two (2004) Brewin Books. ISBN 1-85858-262-8.

External links

• Carl Chinn's website at the University of Birmingham
• BBC WM presenter profile
• Brummagem Magazine
• Birmingham Lives People's History Archive
• Virtual Brum popular website about Birmingham with many articles by Carl Chinn
• List of books written by Carl Chinn