Small Towns in Early Modern Europe

Peter Clark editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:9th May '02

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Small Towns in Early Modern Europe cover

The first major work in English to give a pan-European perspective on the changing role of small towns from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.

Small towns comprised the great majority of urban settlements in pre-industrial Europe. This is the first major work in English on the subject to give a pan-European perspective on the changing role of small towns throughout all parts of Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.Despite the great wave of publications on European cities and towns in the pre-industrial period, little has been written about the thousands of small towns which played a key role in the economic, social and cultural life of early modern Europe. This collection, written by leading experts, redresses that imbalance. It provides the first comparative overview of European small towns from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century, examining their position in the urban hierarchy, demographic structures, economic trends, relations with the countryside, and political and cultural developments. Case studies discuss networks in all the major European countries, as well as looking at the distinctive world of small towns in the more 'peripheral' countries of Scandinavia and central Europe. A wide-ranging editorial introduction puts individual chapters in historical perspective.

"...Clark has provided scholars with a reference work for Europe as a whole that will be the indispensable platform for further work on a regional or national basis. By containing so many specialized studies covering the entire early modern period in Europe, Clark's volume establishes the comparative approach as the definitive reference point. His introduction provides a valuable synthesis of the similarity, interpretive difficulty, and importance of small towns within their larger political and economic networks." Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"...a many-faceted picture of urban life outside the major cities of early modern Europe. It will clearly be of interest to the economic and urban historian, and there is also much to be gleaned from it by those interested in the process of state building, the interaction of center and locality, and the evolution of consumer culture." William and Mary Quarterly
"Here we have a collection of essays that advances both general history and the urban theme it addresses: specialists in the history of the European regions that are covered will welcome some very useful additions to the literature in English." Alan Dyer, Journal of Modern History

ISBN: 9780521893749

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm

Weight: 530g

332 pages