Decentering Urban History

Abstract

This essay introduces the articles collected in the special issue devoted to “decentering urban history” and considers some of their implications. For the most part, urban historians have concentrated on major cities or have at least failed to distinguish between the metropolis and smaller, more peripheral cities in meaningful ways. This essay reviews the articles in the special issue, which were first presented at the 2007 Small Cities Conference sponsored by the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University. They range across the last two centuries and consider urbanization in China, Japan, South Asia, Chile, Germany, and the United States. The essay then argues that prevailing ideas about the impact of globalization, the definition of a city, and the development of urban identities require further consideration from the perspective of peripheral cities. It concludes by offering an approach to distinguishing the experiences of these communities relative to major urban centers.