A pioneering text which covers the urban society of early modern Europe as a whole. Challenges the usual emphasis on regional diversity by stressing the extent to which cities across Europe shared a common urban civilization whose major features remained remarkably constant throughout the period. After outlining the physical, political, religious, economic and demographic parameters of urban life, the author vividly depicts the everyday routines of city life and shows how pitifully vulnerable city-dwellers were to disasters, epidemics, warfare and internal strife.

In the first attempt to cover the urban society of early modern Europe as a unified whole, Christopher Friedrichs challenges the usual emphasis on regional diversity by stressing the extent to which cities across Europe shared a common urban civilization whose major features remained remarkably constant throughout the period. After outlining the physical, political, religious, economic and demographic parameters of urban life, he vividly depicts the everyday routines of city life and shows how pitifully vulnerable city-dwellers were to disasters, epidemics, warfare and internal strife.

'Christopher Friedrich's book is a major achievement ...[it] is an extremely valuable and welcome synthesis, scholarly, encyclopaedic and well argued. It will be an essential item for all students of urban history.' History Today "This is a valuable book, in particular for its thematic approach. It is aimed at a general as well as academic readership, and would be a useful addition to libraries of schools where urban studies form part of the curriculum." History Teaching Review