"If you are interested in learning about early modern cities, James Amelang’s Writing Cities will guide you expertly through town. You will explore new pathways in quest of a wide range of sources that Amelang has collected over years of research. Filled with copious endnotes and a 42-page bibliography, they are the midpoint for a future comprehensive book and a valuable gift to present-day scholars. Amelang’s itinerary explores the authors, themes, and formats of early modern urban writing. We look at the social backgrounds of diverse authors and their views of what made a city beautiful from the late middle ages to 1800. Amelang also highlights the dialogue as a vehicle that reveals the dynamic give and take of urban society. At the end of our tour, we recognize what was singular or shared in the views of contemporaries who wrote about their cities."https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/127/4/1927/6998267