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Journal of Interdisciplinary History 34.4 (2004) 625-626



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Population and Society in Western European Port-Cities, c. 1650-1939. Edited by Richard Lawton and Robert Lee (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2002) 385pp. $75.95

This collection of essays is designed to broaden our understanding of port cities through the presentation of case studies. The editors introduce a typology of the port city, a kind of urban place that, they argue, came to dominate European demographic growth in the early modern and modern periods. The port city's main characteristics included [End Page 625] inflated risks of epidemic infection, high birth rates, dependency on migration streams drawn from unusually large sending zones, the dominance of shipping, and a high proportion of unskilled and casual labor that was vulnerable to seasonal and cyclical unemployment. All of the studies address one or more of these characteristics, giving most attention to the development of demographic (particularly migration and mortality) and economic conditions. Cities studied, in what we call a "sample of convenience," include Bremen, Cork, Genoa, Glasgow, Hamburg, Liverpool, Malmö, Nantes, Portsmouth, and Trieste.

As is sometimes the case with such collections, the editors are more attuned than some of the contributors to the goals of theory building or hypothesis testing. Individual contributors, it seems, accepted the challenge of reaching general conclusions about port cities only after having begun, or even completed, their own studies with other goals in mind. Thus, it is not surprising that theory or hypothesis-driven analysis appears only infrequently in the volume. The book's editors are most attentive to this overarching goal, illustrated in the fine historiographical essay by Lawton and Lee that begins the volume, and Lawton's discussion of Liverpool. In the latter essay, the author demonstrates what might have been an excellent methodological approach for other contributors to emulate. He reaches a theoretical middle ground between the broad typology of port cities referred to above and a narrow local study by setting Liverpool's development against the comparative background of other English port cities.

Given the difficulties of using individual-level data to study the populations of large cities, the demographic analysis necessarily remains largely at the aggregate level, with the exception of Lee and Peter Marschalk's essay on Bremen. Authors track urban growth rates, population sizes, and the areas that sent migrants to the cities. Some essays go into more detail on urban settlement patterns, including issues of density and social segregation (Clemens Wischermann on Hamburg) or the impact of port economies on urban space (Barry Stapleton on Portsmouth). Only Angela Fahy's discussion of the mentality of Nantes' bourgeoisie gives much attention to the role of interclass relations.

It is difficult to sort out the implications of the volume's findings. Authors of individual essays note in passing how their findings conform to, or deviate from, discrete features of the port-city typology. However, many of the contributors seem content with having documented the local stories of interest to them quite apart from comparative or theoretical considerations. The lack of a conclusion in the volume reinforces the impression of diffuseness. Although port cities were undoubtedly key to the urbanization of European society, it is less clear what pressing questions can be answered by the further accrual of such case studies. To beof more than local interest, studies of individual cities will need to be driven by more specific and explicit theoretical questions.



Katherine A. Lynch
Carnegie Mellon University


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