The English urban landscape - P. J. Waller

A volume on the history of the English urban environment that will appeal to both general readers and academic specialists. The emphasis throughout is emphatically that of the historian, rather than the physical geographer: that is, a primary focus on the people who make the landscapes, the changing social structure of the communities, and the different economies which sustained them. The text is enhanced by 130 integrated illustrations, including half-tones and diagrams. The thirteen chapters combine chronological and thematic surveys. After a general introduction by Dr Waller, chapters 2-5 provide overviews of how the urban landscape in England developed during the Roman period, the Early Medieval period, the Medieval period, and the Early Modern Period. The second, larger part of the text offers a variety of thematic approaches to the history of the built environment, with a focus on the last two centuries: metropolitanism, the commercial city, the industrial city, transport, slums and suburbs, recreation, civil and ecclesiastical, and artistic and literary. In addition there are a number of cameo features throughout the text, eg on a small market town, a garden city, a council estate, the Potteries. There is a list of further reading on each chapter.