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The Pre-industrial Urban System

France 1740–1840

Bernard Lepetit author Godfrey Rogers translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:21st Jul '94

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The Pre-industrial Urban System cover

A view of the evolution of the French urban system before the Industrial Revolution.

This is a landmark publication for urban studies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which appears here in English. It provides a synoptic view of the evolution of the French urban system before the Industrial Revolution by examining not only the major cities but the wider urban hierarchy.This is a landmark publication in the urban study of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which appears here for the first time in English. Highly acclaimed in the original French edition, it provides a synoptic view of the evolution of the French urban system before the Industrial Revolution by examining not only the major cities but the wider urban hierarchy. The innovations of this study lie in Lepetit's methodology: his use of models of urban interaction and the unravelling of the complex spatial dimensions to urbanization. He also sets up a detailed analysis of French urbanization and regionalism, and the different aspects of urban society: finance, building, trade, images and innovation. Lepetit's ideas will be of major interest to scholars of urbanization and the industrial revolution in Europe.

"Bernard Lepetit, co-editor of the Annales, has brought to the study of urban history the complex, subtle, and multifaceted approach characteristic of that great journal. This is a major work in urban history that will be difficult for undergraduates but required reading for graduate students in many fields that share an interest in the history of urban networks. I expect its methodological innovations will be emulated in other applications..." Journal of Economic History
"In this remarkably original book, Lepetit approaches the history of French towns in relation to urban economics, regional geography, cultural representations, administrative institutions, and transport networks. The most interesting feature of his interdisciplinary perspective on urban history involves the application of formal theory to historical evidence about urban functions, hierarchies, and networks....Lepetit deserves high praise for the subtlety of his theoretical reasoning, the ingenuity of his historical research, and the rigor of his quantitative methodology. His book will become a classic work for economists, geographers, and sociologists, as well as historians who are interested in the development of urban systems." Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Lepetit makes good observations of the links between politics, administration, and public finance." The Journal of Urban Technology

ISBN: 9780521417341

Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 34mm

Weight: 850g

504 pages