List of Tables
Introduction
The Reasons for the Book
The Contents of the Book
Plan of the Book
Acknowledgments
I. From the Birth of Urbanism to the Beginnings of the Great Civilizations
1. The Birth of Urbanism and the Economy
The Neolithic Revolution
Stages in the Rise of Agriculture
Locating the Origins of Urbanization
Preurban Towns or Protourbanization
The Relations between the Economy and the Birth of Urbanism: Agriculture and Transport
The Tyranny of Distance
The Impossibility of True Cities before Agriculture
Peasants Who Live in Cities
What if the City Invented Agriculture?
2. The Urban Revolution: Its Beginnings in the Middle East
Early Urbanization, Early Agriculture
"International Trade" Preceded True Urbanization
The First Urbanized Cultures: Density and Size
A Dominant Form of Urbanized Culture: City-States
From the City-States of Sumer to the Cities of the Egyptian Empire by Way of Babylon
Egypt: A Civilization That First Evolved without Cities?
The Phoenicians: The First Commercial Towns
What Sustained the Commercial Towns of the Ancient World?
Israel: Small Towns Inhabited by Peasants and Vine Growers
And What of the Other Cultures of the Middle East?
The Maghreb: A Delayed Growth of Agriculture and Cities
3. The Beginnings of Urbanization in Asia
India: the Harapps Civilization as a False Start
China: Multiple Centers of Agriculture and Urbanization
Japan: A Late but Sudden Urbanization
Korea: Essential Borrowings from China
The Cities of Southeast Asia: A Diffusion of Indian and Chinese Urban Systems?
4. The Beginnings of Urbanization in Black Africa and the New World
Black Africa: An Urban History That Remains to be Written
The Neolithic Revolution in Black Africa
The First Cities of Black Africa
The Great Urban Cultures of Black Africa
Islam and Urbanization in Black Africa
Urbanism in the Pre-Columbian Civilizations
The Beginning of Agriculture and Cities in the New World: Were They Invented Here Too?
Highly Urbanized Societies in the New World: Where There Any? And If So, How Can They Be Explained?
North America: Cultures without Cities
And What of the Other Continent?
5. Athens and RomeTwo Very Different Civilizations: The Sources of European Urbanization?
The Aegean Civilization: Palaces or Towns?
Greek Civilization: City-States with Commercial Functions
The Greek Colonies
The Etruscan Cities and Rome
The Roman Empire: A Dominant Metropolis
The Population of the First Great Metropolis, Rome 81
Rome: A Parasitic Capital
A Parasitic Metropolis, But an Empire with Many Cities
Europe before the Miracle of Greece
The Late Urbanization of Non-Romanized Europe A Rough Computation of the Urbanization of Romanized Europe
6. The Beginnings of Urbanization: The Relations between Agriculture, Civilization, the Economy, and Cities
The Earlness, Multiplicity, and Simultaneity of the Ruse of Agriculture
The Earliness, Multiplicity, and Simultaneity of the Rise of Cities
No Cities without Agriculture, But no Agriculture without Cities
Is the City the Characteristic Trait of Humanity?
Cities and Civilizations
Urbanism and the Economy: The Economically Generative City and the Parasitic City
The Case of Greece
The Case of Rome
Is Generalization Possible?
II. Europe from the Fifth Century to the Eighteenth Century
7. Europe from the Fifth Century to the Tenth Century: A Period of Transition Marked by Declines and Renaissances
The Question of Economic Decline in Europe after the Fall of Rome
From 500 to 700-800: A Decline in the Population of Europe or Only a Decline in the Population of European Cities?
An Urban Decline That Nonetheless Set the Scene for Later Urban Development
From 800 to 1000: An Urban Renaissance
Muslim Spain: An Urban Culture
Christian Europe: An Urban World Reborn Thanks to the Church and Trade
The Slavic World: The Birth of the City
Bulgaria: A Rival of Byzantium
8. Europe from the Eleventh Century to the Eighteenth Century: A Survey of the Economy and Urbanization
1000 to 1320-40: A Period of Economic Expansion
A Rapid Growth in Population
1300-1340 to 1470-90: The Upheavals of the Period of the Black Death
1470-90 to 1700: An Expansion of Trade in an Otherwise Stagnant Economy
Stagnation in Agriculture?
Industry: Progress, But No Fundamental Change
900-1000 to 1300-40: A Period of Strong Growth in Urban Population
1340 to 1400-20: A Period of Nongeneralized Urban Recession
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: A Shift in the Center of Gravity of Urban Europe
9. CitiesTheir Locations, Spheres of Influence, Size, and Economic Functions: A Few General Remarks on Matters of Method
The Location of Cities
From Spheres of Influence to the Urban Hierarchy
Is There a Law Governing the Size of Cities?
Basic and Nonbasic Functions of Cities
Specific Urban Functions
10. The Surge of Urban Growth in Medieval Europe
Medieval Cities and the Future Urban Structure of Europe
A Surge of Urban Growth without Increase in the Level of Urbanizationand Yet...
The Geographical Component in the Surge of Urban Growth (1000-1300)
From the Fortified Castle to the Burg, from the Burg to the New Burg, from the New Burg to the Merchant's Agglomeration, from the Merchant's Agglomeration...
Small Towns with Highly Local Functions
Regional Centers
Large Cities
Commercial Cities
Industrial Cities
Administrative Cities
Cities and Universities
The Medieval City: A School of Democracy?
And What of Distant Russia?
The Black Death: A Staggering Demographic Catastrophe from Which the Cities Recovered Quickly
11. European Cities from the Sixteenth Century to the Eighteenth Century
The Break with the Past at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century
A New Surge of Urbanization
Urban Growth and the Divisions of Time
Urban Growth Resulting from the Rise of the New Commercial Powers
A Western Europe Far More Urbanized Than the Rest of the Continent
The First Very Great Cities in Europe
What Factors Explain the Diversity in the Growth of Cities between 1500 and 1700?
12. Urbanization and Development in Europe before the Industrial Revolution: 1000-1700
The City: Agent of Civilization
The City and Development in Europe from 1000 to 1500
The City and Development in Europe from 1500 to 1700
What Conclusions Can Be Drawn?
But May we Really Speak of Development in Traditional Societies?
Splendid but Impoverished Cities
And How Was the Pie Divided?
Was There a Specific Urban Demography?
A Trend Established Long Ago: People Died Younger in Cities
And What of Urban Fertility?
A Negative Natural Balance Sheet: The Country Nourished the City with People as Well as with Food
III. The Role of the City in the Development of the Western World
13. Urbanism in Developed Countries: 1700-1980
The Eighteenth Century in Europe: Contrasts in Regional Development
The Urban Explosion in Nineteenth-Century Europe
A Digression: The Criteria Used to Define Urban Population
The Twentieth Century: A Variety of Cyclical Patterns
The Urbanization of the Rest of the Developed World
The Emergence of the Megapolis
Large Cities, But No Dramatic Change in the Average Size of Cities
14. Urban Demography in Developed Countries from the Eighteenth Century to the Twentieth Century
The City: Graveyard of Babies
Lower Life Expectancy in the Cities Even for Adults
The Causes of Disproportionately Hi