Town, City, And Nation: England In 1850-1914 Paperback

P. J. Walker

By the outbreak of the First World War England had become the world's first mass urban society. In just over sixty years the proportion of town-dwellers had risen from 50 to 80 per cent, and during this period many of the most crucial developments in English urban society had taken place. This book provides a uniquely comprehensive analysis of those developments - conurbations, suburbs, satellite towns, garden cities, and seaside resorts. The author assesses the importance of London, the provincial cities, and manufacturing centres; he also examines the continuing influence of the small country town and `rural' England on political, economic, and cultural growth. In many respects, P. J. Waller's book is a general social history of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century England, seen from an urban perspective. It is both scholarly and immensely readable.

9780192891631

English

Oxford University Press

01 Nov 1991

356

`Waller extracts much and his interpretations question prevalent stereotypes in English historiography and advance the definition of urban history itself ... a comprehensive view of its subject.' Urban History Review a mine of information, but also a pleasure to read. * Albion * `The material and ideas set out in this interesting book stimulate as well as inform.' History Today