Book excerpt: This book, originally published in 1977, is comprised of a selection of documents which have been carefully arranged and edited to illustrate the main characteristics of local government systems in Britain during a period of extensive reform and reorganisation. The intention was to give students a direct knowledge of the basic materials upon which the study of local government and its reorganisation could be founded, and to demonstrate the vitality and significance of primary sources. The material is drawn principally from the decade preceding publication, and is arranged to document reorganisation in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as in England. Together with the companion volume British Government and Constitutional Change, this book was aimed as university courses in British government and politics and could be used to illuminate historical aspects of such courses today.