The Cambridge Urban History of Britain. Volume III, 1840–1950. Edited by Martin Daunton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xxvi, 944. $140.00.

Extract

First, it must be said that the publication of this and its two sister volumes on the urban history of Britain represents a magnificent achievement, for which all concerned—publisher, editors, and contributors—should be congratulated. Volume III covers the period during which Britain truly became urban. Even if all of its people were not living in towns by 1900, relatively few were directly engaged in agriculture and could be said to be part of a rural society in every sense. This is a social, economic, and environmental history of urban places which by 1950 must have encompassed, or at least severely impinged upon, the entire British population (82 percent of which lived in towns in 1951, according to Table 2.1). As the editor himself asks, What then is particular about the urban history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?