Cities in Modernity
Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840–1930

This book explores what made cities 'modern' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Richard Dennis (Author)

9780521464703, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 April 2008

458 pages, 48 b/w illus. 19 maps 5 tables
25.9 x 18.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.94 kg

'… the book is remarkable … for its breadth as well as depth, and it should attract a wide readership, especially from geography, urban history, cultural, leisure and urban studies.' British Journal of Canadian Studies

What made cities 'modern' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? Cities in Modernity explores connections between culture, economy and built environment in cities of this period, drawing its evidence principally from London, New York and Toronto. The book discusses both the cultural experience of modernity and the material modernization of cities, placing special emphasis on their historical geographies, on the production, representation and use of urban space. The opening chapters present new ways of seeing cities in political and religious discourse, social survey, mapping, art and literature. The book then concentrates on new kinds of public and private spaces, such as apartment buildings, office blocks and department stores, and the networks of communication between them. An important theme throughout is the gendered experience of the new types of environment. The book will appeal to scholars and students of historical geography, urban history and cultural studies.

1. Building bridges
2. The idea of progress
3. Surveying the city
4. Writing and picturing the city
5. Improving streets
6. Public spaces - practised places
7. Building suburbia
8. Consuming suburbia
9. Mansion flats and model dwellings
10. Geographies of downtown: office spaces
11. Geographies of downtown: the place of shopping
12. Networked cities.

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Historical geography [HBTP], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Architecture [AM]