Cities of Ideas: Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain 1800?000 Essays in Honour of David Reeder

Cities of Ideas: Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain 1800-2000 addresses the changing nature of individualism and public service in the 19th and 20th centuries, and consists of a collection of essays authored by senior figures in economic, social, cultural and educational history. The question of the balance between the life of the private citizen and the need to play an active role in the wider community, is one that recurs throughout history. In this book the shifting nature of civic responsibility between 1800 and 1990 is addressed, looking at the balance of individual and collective responsibilities as well as obligation to a growing democratic state. The ten essays by leading scholars in the field of urban and social history offer fresh and important insights into governance and civil society in the modern period.

Contents: Foreword; Civil society and British cities, Richard Rodger and Robert Colls; Taxation and representation in the Victorian city, Martin Daunton; The metropolitan and the municipal: the politics of health and environment in London, 1860-1920, Bill Luckin; Resolving the sewage question: Metropolis Sewage & Essex Reclamation Company, 1865-81, P.L. Cottrell; The Sheffield Democrats' critique of criminal justice in the 1850s, Chris A. Williams; A year in the public life of the British bourgeoisie, R.J. Morris; The 'common good' and civic promotion: Edinburgh 1860-1914, Richard Rodger; David Reeder's 'alternative system': the school boards in the 1890s, Brian Simon; Futures from the past: the rise and fall of university liberal adult education, Bill Williamson; Women and citizenship: gender and the built environment in British cities 1870-1939, Hellen Meller; Citizenship, civil society and quality of life: Sutton Model Dwellings Estates 1919-39, Patricia L. Garside; When we lived in communities: working-class culture and its critics, Robert Colls; David Reeder: career and publications; Index.

Robert Colls