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maintained intense contacts concerning urbanization, Saunier suggested
that the history of urban exchange fits into a wide field of
international scientific movements and exchanges.
The concluding debate once again underlined the large variety of
themes which the conference had addressed. This, of course, meant
that it was difficult to define a common, international direction for
comparative research. British historians in particular brought up the
question of property prices again, which they saw as the crucial function
by which morphological, political, and socio-economic processes
relating to cities around 1900 can be described. The German side
sometimes neglected to give sufficient weight to cultural history
research on the city. It is to the credit of the conference organizers
that this event brought together so many historians working in the
field. Given the prominence of the examples selected by the speakers,
the conference can be seen as providing a chance to ‘synchronize
watches’, whose main aim was mutual encouragement for common
research. In addition to the well-known examples and actors, such as
Horsfall, Geddes, and Hegemann, other more unusual topics, such as
the comparative perspective on the protection of monuments or the
gender aspect of the garden city movement, were also discussed,
which encouraged greater depth. A stronger theoretical framework
for the international–municipal comparison would have been desirable,
but the huge range of topics discussed meant that this was hardly
to be expected. It is to be hoped that this German–British comparison
of the city and urbanization can be continued in relation to
groups of themes such as the history of town-planning, municipal
poor relief, and garden cities.
CARL PHILIPP SCHUCK (Institut für vergleichende Städte ge schichte,
Münster/Westfalen)
161
The City as a Stage for Reform