The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History

Abstract

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. Contributors to this volume - Carl Abbott, Portland State University in Oregon Mohammad al-Asad, the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE) in Amman, Jordan J. A. Baird, Birkbeck College, University of London Wim Blockmans has been a history professor at Rotterdam and Leiden Universities, and Rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study Bruno Blonde, the University of Antwerp Leonard Blusse, Leiden University Marc Boone, Ghent university Maarten Bosker, the Erasmus University Rotterdam Ebru Boyar, Middle East Technical University, Ankara Eltjo Buringh, Utrecht University Peter Burke, Emmanuel College, Cambridge Xiangming Chen, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Fudan University in Shanghai, China Peter Clark, Emeritus Professor, University of Helsinki and Visiting Professor, Leicester University Penelope J. Corfield, Royal Holloway, London University Howard Dick, the University of Melbourne and the University of Newcastle (NSW) Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Notre Dame University Henry Fitts graduated from Trinity College in 2012 Bill Freund, the University of KwaZulu-Natal Alan Gilbert, University College London Marjolein 't Hart, the University of Amsterdam Carola Hein, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania Marjatta Hietala, formerly of the University of Tampere Ho-fung Hung, the Johns Hopkins University Jussi S. Jauhiainen, the University of Turku and the University of Tartu Prashant Kidambi, University of Leicester Ray Laurence, University of Kent at Canterbury Andrew Lees, The State University of New Jersey Lynn Hollen Lees, the University of Pennsylvania Luuk de Ligt, the University of Leiden Mario Liverani, the University of Rome, La Sapienza Leo Lucassen, Leiden University David Mattingly, the University of Leicester Kevin McDonald, the UCL Institute of Archaeology James L. McClain, Brown University Augusta McMahon, the University of Cambridge Martin V. Melosi, the University of Houston, Houston, Texas Thomas R. Metcalf, the University of California, Berkeley Robin Osborne, the University of Cambridge Cameron Petrie, the University of Cambridge Peter J. Rimmer, the Australian National University William T. Rowe, the Johns Hopkins University Hannu Salmi, the University of Turku Kristin Stapleton, the University at Buffalo, State University of New York Nancy S. Steinhardt, the University of Pennsylvania David Stone studies the archaeology and history of North Africa Dominique Valerian, the Universite Lumiere-Lyon Ilja Van Damme, the Centre for Urban History Jan Luiten Van Zanden, the University of Utrecht Mercedes Volait, the Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris Paul Waley, the University of Leeds Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Hilde de Weerdt, Pembroke College, the University of Oxford Anne Winter, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel Shaohua Zhan, the Johns Hopkins University