The Cambridge Urban History of Europe

Volume 1, Ancient Europe
General editor Maarten Prak
Edited by Penelope J. E. Davies, Christina G. Williamson
Coming soon
Expected online publication date:

January 2026

Print publication:

31 October 2025
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Volume I offers a broad perspective on urban culture in the ancient European world. It begins with chronological overviews which paint in broad brushstrokes a picture that serves as a frame for the thematic chapters in the rest of the volume. Positioning ancient Europe within its wider context, it touches on Asia and Africa as regions that informed and were later influenced by urban development in Europe, with particular emphasis on the Mediterranean basin. Topics range from formal characteristics (including public space), water provision, waste disposal, urban maintenance, spaces for the dead, and border spaces; to ways of thinking about, visualising, and remembering cities in antiquity; to conflict within and between cities, economics, mobility and globalisation, intersectional urban experiences, slavery, political participation, and religion.

Volume 2, Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Edited by Patrick Lantschner, Maarten Prak
Coming soon
Expected online publication date:

January 2026

Print publication:

31 October 2025
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Volume II charts European urbanism between 700–1850, the millennium during which Europe became the world's most urbanised region. Featuring thirty-six chapters from leading scholars working on all the major linguistic areas of Europe, the volume offers a state-of-the-art survey that explores and explains this transformation, how similar or different such processes were across Europe, and how far it is possible to discern traits that characterise European urbanism in this period. The first half of the volume offers overviews on the urban history of Mediterranean Europe, Atlantic and North Sea Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and European urbanisms around the world. The second half explores major themes, from the conceptualisation of cities and their material fabric to continuities and changes in the social, political, economic, religious, and cultural histories of cities and towns.

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