| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.3

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| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.3 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

Cities of the World: A History in Maps. By Peter Whitefield (London: The British Library, 2005, 208 pp. £25).

Collecting maps, plans, and views of antique cities has long been a favorite pastime and even a venture for those with the means and expertise to undertake it. More recently urban history as a field of study has inserted itself into this process making city mapping a sophisticated field of scholarly endeavor. Whitefield's Cities of the World, while in this mode, lacks the depth to be regarded as a truly pioneering work in city mapping. Consisting of an eighteen-page introduction on "The City in History", brief histories of some sixty-six select cities arranged alphabetically, and an amalgam of maps, plans, views, elevations and axonometric projections of buildings with accompanying map imagery—all from the British Library—this work does at least highlight the field's potential. Although time has robbed many of Whitefield's cities of their earlier and unique character, their panoramic harbor views, encircling ramparts, and geometrical shapes embellished by baroque edifices tell us rather dramatically the way things were in centuries past.

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