• List of figures; List of tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Spontaneous urban development: in search of a theory for the Mediterranean city; 2. Cities of silence: Athens and Piraeus in the early twentieth century; 3. The Greek 'economic miracle' and the hidden proletariat; 4. The 'golden period' of spontaneous urban development, 1950–67; 5. Industrial restructuring versus the cities; 6. The end of spontaneity in urban development; 7. Athens and the uniqueness of urban development in Mediterranean Europe; References; Index.

"Using secondary sources for comparisons with other Mediterranean cities and archival studies for Athens, Leontidou has amassed considerable evidence--much of it presented in tables and maps--about how working-class migrants provided shelter for themselves in an unregulated building economy. Taken as an empirical account, Leontidou's book fills a gap in the literature." Josef W. Konvitz, Journal of Interdisciplinary History