Historians discuss the 1970s as an era of deep transformations and even structural rupture in Western societies. For the first time, Cities Contested engages in this debate from the perspective of comparative urban history, examining the struggles in and about urban space at a time when ideas about the “city” and concepts of urban planning were being reconsidered. This book discusses the structural rupture of the time by comparing case studies of Italian and Western German cities, analyzing central issues of urban politics, urban renewal and heritage, and urban protest and social movements. An original contribution to current debates on the transition from industrial modernity to post-Fordist societies as well as to urban history and the history of social movements, Cities Contested draws on the parallel histories of Italy and Germany to propose new questions and new avenues for investigation.

Martin Baumeister is director of the German Historical Institute in Rome, Italy, and professor of contemporary European history at the University of Munich, Germany. Bruno Bonomo is research fellow of contemporary history in the Department of History, Cultures, and Religions at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Dieter Schott is professor of modern urban and environmental history at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.