Investigating European Cities in the Modern Age through the Lens of the Global Urban History Approach

Abstract

This review article focuses on two key developments in urban history. The first is that the new transnational approach to urban history is significantly advancing the field and the second is that within the European context an important new emphasis is being placed on Eastern and Southern Europe. As claimed by Claus Møller Jørgensen in his review of nineteenth-century transnational urban history:transnational urban history entails a measure of comparative work to find commonalities as hints of connections . . . The enlargement of scale and the search for connections does add new perspectives to urban history and produces new knowledge . . . Focusing on cities as the location of transnational processes of modernity brings urban place more centrally into discussions of national space and national histories.1