A study of cities and towns in early modern Europe. Europe is defined in this study as the region encompassed, at the start of early modern times, by the Church of Rome. This includes all of western and central Europe and some of eastern Europe, but it excludes Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
A pioneering text which covers the urban society of early modern Europe as a whole. Challenges the usual emphasis on regional diversity by stressing the extent to which cities across Europe shared a common urban civilization whose major features remained remarkably constant throughout the period. After outlining the physical, political, religious, economic and demographic parameters of urban life, the author vividly depicts the everyday routines of city life and shows how pitifully vulnerable city-dwellers were to disasters, epidemics, warfare and internal strife.
'Christopher Friedrich's book is a major achievement ...[it] is an extremely valuable and welcome synthesis, scholarly, encyclopaedic and well argued. It will be an essential item for all students of urban history.'
History Today
"This is a valuable book, in particular for its thematic approach. It is aimed at a general as well as academic readership, and would be a useful addition to libraries of schools where urban studies form part of the curriculum."
History Teaching Review
