Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a major survey of urbanization and the making of modern Europe from the mid-eighteenth century to the First World War. During these years Europe experienced startling rates of urbanization, with the populations of numerous cities growing by 1000 percent or more. This book explores the causes, course and consequences of this urban explosion. The authors link urban growth to industrialization, migration, and the growth of colonial empires. They show how the social, political, and intellectual challenges cities posed were met by urban reformers; how cities enriched cultural life; and how European cities influenced and were influenced by colonial cities. No other book in English situates the story of cities within the overall framework of European and imperial history during the long nineteenth century. Cities and the Making of Modern Europe will be essential reading for students of both modern European history and urban history.
Trade Review'…this book offers a comprehensive overview of the social and political challenges and opportunities created by large cities, and provides an excellent context into which more detailed local analyses might be placed and through which they might be assessed against broader European patterns and experiences.' Local Population Studies
'… the book will clearly figure as a standard reference survey for modern urban history in western Europe for the years to come.' Journal of Urban History
'This is a readable survey with numerous illustrations, such as maps, photographs, and works of art. The authors augment their analysis with statistical information and with telling quotations from primary sources. Bibliographical suggestions, primarily to works in English, are made at the end of each chapter. This book could be assigned usefully both to graduate and undergraduate students. All readers will benefit from the authors' systematic effort to present urban history in a transnational, comparative framework.' H-German
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. 1750–1850, An Era of Disruption: 1. Urban worlds around the middle of the eighteenth century; 2. Industrial urbanization; 3. Varieties of urban protest; 4. Pursuits of urban improvement; Part II. 1850–1914, An Era of Reconstruction: 5. The challenge of the big cities; 6. Toward the social city; 7. Urban cultures; 8. Imperial and colonial cities; Conclusion; Appendix A. The growth of individual cities in Europe, 1750–1910; Appendix B. General works about individual cities in Europe.
