New Publication: Dr Lantschner Launches The Cambridge Urban History of Europe

Landmark Publication on Urban History is Published

Dr Patrick Lantschner, Associate Professor in the History Department, is one of the editors of The Cambridge Urban History of Europe, a landmark publication in the field of urban history to which a number of other UCL academics also have contributed.

Dr Lantschner co-edited the second volume on medieval and early modern Europe with Prof. Maarten Prak (Utrecht). Other UCL colleagues were also involved in this project as authors. Dr Julietta Steinhauer (History Department) wrote a chapter on intersectional perspectives on the ancient city, Prof. Todd Whitelaw (Institute of Archaeology) wrote about Minoan and Mycenaean urbanism, and Prof. Zoltán Biederman (School of European Languages, Culture and Society) wrote on European urbanisation in Asia.

International Launch

There will be an international launch of The Cambridge Urban History of Europe at the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London on Friday, 27 March 2026 at 6.15pm. Registration is available here.

The evening will open with a presentation of the three volumes, followed by a conversation between the editors and Rosemary Sweet, Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester and editor of the journal Urban History. The event will conclude with a reception and an opportunity to continue the discussion informally. 

The Cambridge Urban History of Europe 

Split into three volumes chronologically, The Cambridge Urban History of Europe comprehensively and methodically examines Europe’s long urban history from its pre-historic roots to today. Featuring over a hundred essays from experts across various disciplines and countries, the volumes provide an up-to-date analysis of current issues and major themes in urban studies, and shed new light on regions that are often ignored or have previously received marginal treatment. Authoritative and contemporary, the collection is a state-of-the-art survey of the history of urban Europe.  

Dr Lantschner commented: ‘Our ambition as editors has been to bring together the enormous amount of scholarship on the history of urbanism in Europe and to open up directions for new research, in a form that is useful and easily accessible both for scholars and students from across History and other disciplines working on cities. The medieval and early modern volume, which I co-edited with Prof. Maarten Prak, charts European urbanism between 700 and 1850, the millennium during which Europe became the world’s most urbanised region. It combines regional surveys of Mediterranean Europe, Atlantic and North Sea Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and European urbanisms around the world with thematic chapters ranging from the conceptualisation of cities and their material fabric to continuities and changes in the social, political, economic, religious and cultural histories of cities and towns.’