In 2008 for the first time the majority of the planet's inhabitants lived in cities and towns. Becoming globally urban has been one of mankind's greatest collective achievements over time, and raises many questions. How did global city systems evolve and interact in the past? How have historic urban patterns impacted on those of the contemporary world? And what were the key drivers in the roller-coaster of urban change over the millennia - market forces such as trade and industry, rulers and governments, competition and collaboration between cities, or the urban environment and demographic forces? This pioneering comparative work by leading scholars drawn from a range of disciplines offers the first detailed comparative study of urban development from ancient times to the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History explores not only the main trends in the growth of cities and towns across the world - in Asia and the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Americas - and the different types of cities from great metropolitan centres to suburbs, colonial cities, and market towns, but also many of the essential themes in the making and remaking of the urban world: the role of power, economic development, migration, social inequality, environmental challenge and the urban response, religion and representation, cinema, and urban creativity. Split into three parts covering Ancient cities, the medieval and early-modern period, and the modern and contemporary era, it begins with an introduction by the editor identifying the importance and challenges of research on cities in world history, as well as the crucial outlines of urban development since the earliest cities in ancient Mesopotamia to the present.
1: Peter Clark: Introduction Part I: Early Cities 2: Augusta McMahon: Mesopotamia 3: Robin Osborne and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill: Cities of the Ancient Mediterranean 4: David Mattingly and Kevin MacDonald: Africa 5: Cameron A. Petrie: South Asia 6: N. Steinhardt: China 7: David L. Stone: Economy 8: Luuk de Ligt: Population and Migration 9: Mario Liverani: Power and Citizenship 10: J.A. Baird: Religion and Ritual 11: Ray Laurence: Planning and Environment Part II: Pre-Modern Cities 12: Marc Boone: Medieval Europe 13: Bruno Blondé and Ilja Van Damme: Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800 14: Dominique Valérian: Middle East: 7th-15th Centuries 15: Ebru Boyar: The Ottoman City: 1500-1800 16: Hilde de Weerdt: China: 600-1300 17: William T. Rowe: China: 1300-1900 18: James McClain: Japan's Pre-modern Urbanism 19: Leonard Blussé: Port Cities of South East Asia: 1400-1800 20: Felipe Fernández-Armesto: Latin America 21: Bas van Bavel, Maarten Bosker, Eltjo Buringh, and Jan Luiten van Zanden: Economy 22: Anne Winter: Population and Migration: European and Chinese Experiences Compared 23: Wim Blockmans and Marjolein 't Hart: Power 24: Peter Burke: Culture: Representations Part III: Modern and Contemporary Cities 25: Andrew Lees and Lynn Hollen Lees: Europe: 1800-2000 26: Alan Gilbert: Latin America 27: Carl Abbott: North America 28: Kristin Stapleton: China: 1900 to the Present 29: Paul Waley: Japan 30: Prashant Kidambi: South Asia 31: Howard Dick and Peter J. Rimmer: South East Asia and Australia 32: Mercedes Volait and Mohammad Al-Asad: Middle East 33: Bill Freund: Africa: 1000-2010 34: Ho-fung Hung and Shaohua Zhan: Industrialization and the City: East and West 35: Leo Lucassen: Population and Migration 36: Alan Gilbert: Poverty, Inequality, and Social Segregation 37: Martin V. Melosi: The Urban Environment 38: Marjatta Hietala and Peter Clark: Creative Cities 39: Hannu Salmi: Cinema and the City 40: Thomas R. Metcalf: Colonial Cities 41: Xiangming Chen and Henry Fitts: Contemporary Metropolitan Cities 42: Jussi S. Jauhiainen: Suburbs 43: Carola Hein: Port Cities 44: Penelope J. Corfield: Conclusion: Cities in Time
Peter Clark was until recently Professor of European Urban History at the University of Helsinki. Educated at Oxford he was the first director (1985) of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester where he remains Visiting Professor. In 1989 he helped found the European Association for Urban History and he has published or edited over 20 books on urban, social, cultural and environmental history. In 2010 he received an honorary degree from Stockholm University.
Reviews for The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History
`This is no mere handbook, but a most valuable addition to what is proving to be an impressive series.' Jeremy Black, History Today `A must acquisition by any college or university library ... Essential.' J.F.Bauman, CHOICE
