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Examining the nature and diversity of urban life during the 16th and 17th centuries, a period of considerable economic, political and social change, this text stresses the extent to which towns remained distinct from their rural hinterlands. Its wide embrace gives it the character of a history of Europe, viewed from the urban perspective. In achieving the integration of different experiences into the broader discussion, it manages to retain an acute sense of the importance and development of regional diversity. In assessing the contribution of urban centres in western Europe to long-term change, the focus is primarily on life inside the town. Each chapter considers the framework of urban life - such as the economy, government, elites, social organization, the environment - and the tensions that arose from demographic growth, prosperity or adversity and the growing presence of external pressures. Responses to poverty and threats to social order are paid particular attention. While this study attempts to convey a sense of the parameters and diversity of life in an urban environment during the period, it also provides an insight into the ways in which existing structures of government and institutional organization attempted and often failed, to come to terms with new problems.