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The Preindustrial City: Past and Present

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Written in the mid-1960s, this is a classic text. While titled "The Preindustrial City" it is really about the feudal city. A comparative study in both geographical location and time, it discusses the rise of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, the Indus Valley, the Valley of the Huang Ho, and Meso-America, and the growth and spread of cities. Its strength, though, is in its descriptions of life within the cities. Its chapters include: 1. Introduction; 2. Cities -- Their Beginnings; 3. The Patterning of Preindustrial-Urban Proliferation; 4. Demography and Ecology; 5. Social Class; 6. Marriage and the Family; 7. Economic Structure; 8. Political Structure; 9. Religious Structure; 10. Communication, Education, and the Nature of Knowledge; 11. A Backward Glance, A Forward Look. I have used this in introductory Anthropology courses and introductory Urban Studies courses and it has been well-received. It can be a little dry at times, but that is the nature of the material. The writing and the detail allow you to imagine what life might have been like in the different times and places.