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In this survey of modern European urban history, two highly profiled urban historians have pooled their resources and their profound knowledge to undertake the ambitious endeavour of highlighting the contribution of cities towards the 'Making of Modern Europe'. The book, which will work well as a textbook for students of urban history and scholars interested in a general introduction to the field, answers many questions and displays a wide scope in its coverage. However, it is also somewhat limited in a number of respects: the Europe presented by Lees and Lees is at best the 'Europe of the Nine' - i.e. after Britain joined the EEC - not the Europe as is currently discussed and developed after the end of Cold War. The narrative of urbanization, of discourses about urban problems in a very wide sense and of the urban solutions developed, has a strong focus on Great Britain, France and Germany and their large cities, particularly London, Paris and Berlin. Other west and south European cities are occasionally referred to but eastern Europe and large parts of southern Europe are conspicuously absent. This goes to the point that in Appendix B, listing 'General works on individual cities' cities like St Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Cracow, Prague or Sofia are not even mentioned. This exclusion of the eastern European urban experience somewhat undercuts the claims of the title 'Making of Modern Europe'.
The authors justify this restraint on the 'urban leaders' and the great nation states of that period on the grounds that their aim is to focus on cities as 'the places where modernity began and where...