Urban Bibliography Introduction

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The Urban Past: An International
Urban History, by Gilbert A. Stelter

Introduction to the Bibliography

This bibliography has been compiled primarily for the use of students of urban history at the University of Guelph. Urban history is a burgeoning field at the international level and therefore it is possible only to make selections from the wealth of good literature available. This is a specialist bibliography and some of the reasons for my selections are listed below.

a. The basis for selection.

1. Recent Literature. I have concentrated on works published since 1980, and especially since 1990. For older literature, refer to the bibliographies cited at the beginning of each section. For example, older material for Canada is covered in depth in Alan Artibise and Gilbert Stelter, Canada's Urban Past, A Bibliography to 1980 (1981) and is not repeated here. Other bibliographies which cover earlier material thoroughly include Anthony Sutcliffe, The History of Urban and Regional Planning: An Annotated Bibliography (1981), and Michael Conzen, T.A. Rumney, and Graeme Wynn, A Scholar's Guide to Geographical Writing on the American and Canadian Past (1993).

2. Studies with a historical perspective. There is a rich literature on the current situation in cities; much of this is policy oriented and valuable but can not be included here. An example is the field of housing. A work such as John Sewell, Houses and Homes: Housing for Canadians (1994) is an excellent source of statistics on present problems and has exellent policy suggestions but does not have a historical dimension and is therefore not listed.

3. Studies with an "urban" historical perspective. The listing includes only those works that concentrate on the urban dimension of the past. Any research you undertake will have to go beyond this listing, for the urban element is only a portion of the totality of any social reality. For example, any study of the towns of Upper Canada (early Ontario) will have to take into consideration the general works on Upper Canada such as Doug McCalla's Planting the Province: The Economic History of Upper Canada (1993), yet work of this kind can not be included in this list.

4. Mostly titles in English. Some of the basic titles in French, German and Spanish are listed because these are languages I can handle, but most of the citations are in English. Students capable of other languages should consult the "Historiographical studies," which precede each countries listing in the Modern part only.

H3>b. The organization of the bibliography. The basic organization is chronological, based on large periods of time such as the Classical, the Medieval, the Early Modern, and especially the Modern (since 1800), which is by far the biggest portion.

Within each period, the organization is by country. Three countries get extended treatment in the Modern period - Great Britain, the United States, and Canada - simply because of the volume of material that is available (and that I know about). For these three countries, I have used additional categories to organize the listings, and these are outlined at the beginning of each country's coverage.

For students looking for early North American listings, a word of explanation. Early North American works fall into Part V - The Early Modern City (1500-1800). I have included all the French colonial urban material (including New France and the Caribbean) into one section. All early English Canadian and early American urban history is included in a section on "British colonial towns" which includes a variety of other areas of the world.

Major biographies of cities such as Rome or London are always included only in the Modern part, even though they also apply to each of the earlier parts.

Historiographical articles are included for each country when available, but only in the Modern part.

A few of the citations have been annotated when they represent particularly important works. A full annotation is simply beyond one person's capablity.

I plan to make this bibliography more comprehensive in the future. I would therefore appreciate suggestions for changes and additions, and corrections where necessary.

Gilbert Stelter
Department of History
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
N1G 2W1
FAX (519) 766-4384
email-gstelter@uoguelph.ca