The Urban History Yearbook

Urban history boomed in the early 1970s, following a decade of heightened public and academic interest in cities and in urban problems and policies. For English-language organs devoted to urban history began publication between 1972 and 1975. Two of these — the Journal of Urban History and the Urban History Yearbook — have been remarkably consistent in editorial policy, format and appearance since their debuts in 1974, though quite different from each other. Of the other two, the Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine has changed considerably in scope and presentation since its beginnings in 1972. In 1985 it absorbed the subscription list and some of the features of the fourth, Urbanism Past and Present ( 1975-1985), which had grown out of the Urban History Group Newsletter. The Yearbook, more distinctive than the others in its range, emphasis and annual frequency of publication, deserves some assessment after thirteen years.