Cities and the Making of Modern Europe, 1750-1914

by Andrew Lees, Lynn Hollen Lees

Overview

This 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521548229
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/13/2007
Series:	New Approaches to European History , #39
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Lees is Professor of History at the Camden Campus of Rutgers University. He is the author of Cities Perceived: Urban Society in European and American Thought, 1820–1940 (1985) and Cities, Sin and Social Reform in Imperial Germany (2002).

Lynn Hollen Lees is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her previous publications include The Solidarities of Strangers: The English Poor Laws and the People, 1700 to 1948 (1998) and, with Paul Hohenberg, The Making of Urban Europe, 1000–1950 (1985, 1995).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 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.

Editorial Reviews

"Recommended" -Choice

"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." -Michael W. Honhart, H-German

"...an invaluable aid to the teaching of both European and urban history, portraying cities as the links between metropoles and colonies, as drivers of reform, and as simultaneously stimulating and retarding national economies." -Richard Dennis, The International History Review

From the Publisher