This chapter explores the cities of Northern Europe as a plethora of difference and similarity, first by considering the possibility of a Northern European region as it might emerge from climate, politics or urbanisation. It traces, a double process of urban material planning, growth and building and, on the other hand, an overall notion of a (Northern) European urban and regional identity. This plays out over a broad process from the liberal cities of the later 1800s, through the inter-war crisis and post-war changes (very distinct between Nordic and Baltic cities), to the post-Cold War period (where some similarities reappear).The chapter also focuses on the welfare period, where state and municipality enter into new negotiations. The social programmes of Nordic statecraft mean large-scale public housing, regulation and institutions, causing new cleavages between city and country. The new role of the market in urbanisation from the 1970s onwards is also considered, intersecting from 1989 with the end of the Cold War, and a reconnection between Baltic and Nordic cities. The chapter evaluates the influence of globalisation and the role of modernised cities both economically and culturally, and thus the notion and identity of Nordic and Northern European cities are connected with regional urban development.

Modern European cities have owed much of their distinctive character – both as individual cities and as typical ‘European’ cities – to their landscapes of urban pleasure and recreation. The chapter charts the transformation of modern leisure in cities between the 1850s and 1930s, focusing on the role of state, commercial and civic actors, and on new ideas about leisure in the dramatic expansion of theatres, music halls, cinemas, cafés, dance halls, shopping malls, parks, sporting facilities, libraries and museums. It discusses how changes in modern landscapes of urban leisure have not just reflected but also shaped major trends in urban social change, particularly regarding the interplay of class, gender and ethnic inequalities. The final section touches upon patterns of transnational cultural exchange in the field of leisure which in various ways made European cities more European.

This chapter tells the history of European urban heritage by evaluating its conceptual evolution, its relation to the major waves of urbanisation, and its role in shaping the historic quarters and the forms of urban governance as guiding indicators. The growing complexity of urban heritage integrates different types of expertise, social involvement and forms of governance. The urban growth of many nineteenth-century European cities led to their spread and to the replanning of their centres. Whereas many European city centres provided a privileged area for the political instrumentalisation of public remembrance, many became sites of industrial urbanisation. For the latter, deurbanisation usually accelerated after the Second World War due to the mass destruction or by faster industrialisation. From the 1970s, this tendency was reversed, with reurbanisation redefining these neighbourhoods. Although these processes do not entirely follow the same rhythm, they roughly determine four periods divided by the Second World War, the 1970s and 2000. Authenticity – as a historical reference, as a principle of heritage conservation, or as a constructive element of current identity-formations – remained the standard for safeguarding urban heritage and the conceptual bridge between the representation of the historic city and the urban realities in its place.

In the first section of the chapter, basic patterns of urban economic development are presented in general terms. Its conditions and dynamics are discussed from the perspective of the New Economic Geography, historical caesuras of the political/institutional environment, and determining technological trends. According to these dimensions, the overall development is divided into the three phases: the first industrialisation (until the 1880s), the second industrialisation (until 1960/1970s) and more recent post-industrial or post-Fordist developments (since the 1980s). Further sections illustrate the patterns of development, and the summary provides an overview of the most important findings.

Volume II charts European urbanism between 700 and 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.

Volume II charts European urbanism between 700 and 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.

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 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.

Despite enormous variations across medieval and early medieval Europe, the second wave of European urbanisation that started around 1000CE had major repercussions everywhere. The increase in the number and size of European towns coincided with a period of relatively weak state power. This had a variety of consequences: from the diverse ways of organising urban life and space across the continent to the large degree of self-government that many towns enjoyed. It may also be one of the reasons why Europe remained, as it had become during the Roman era, a continent of medium-sized towns, rather than mega-cities – a development that arguably still affects the continent’s patterns of urbanisation today. This Introduction surveys aspects of European urbanisation as they played out across a millennium and their interpretation by urban historians.

The development of urbanism in Europe, beginning in the high Middle Ages, gave rise to many and diverse ways of representing cities. In the beginning these representations show cities as compact units, and as places characterised by a particular social order grounded in the history of salvation. New ways of conceiving cities were explored along with the humanist interest in urbanism, perspective, and historical knowledge. From around 1500, representations experimented with how cities could be displayed as differentiated architectural spaces with an individual sense of self. At the same time the technology of printing helped a market for images of towns and cities to develop. Measuring, but also aesthetic models and the needs of the administration became increasingly important. Scholars, artists and later engineers and photographers contributed to a broad range of images and maps that display cities from manifold angles.

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.