"an enriching contribution to the field." Educational Studies

• Introduction; Problematics and domains: thinking internationally about urban education Ronald K. Goodenow; Part I. Research in National Contexts: 1. History, education and the city: a review of trends in Britain David A. Reeder; 2. Education and America's cities Ronald D. Cohen and William J. Reese; 3. The 'state' of the history of urban education in Australia Kerry Wimshurst and Ian Davey; 4. Out of the shadow: retrieving the history of urban education and urban childhood in Canada Neil Sutherland and Jean Barman; Part II. Approaches to the Social History of Education: Ecology, Choice and Culture: 5. Social stratification and nineteenth-century English urban education William E. Marsden; 6. Compulsion, work and family: a case study from nineteenth-century Birmingham Christine M. Heward; 7. Understanding irregular school attendance: beyond the rural-urban dichotomy Ian Davey and Kerry Wimshurst; 8. Redoing urban education history Barbara Finkelstein; Part III. Needs and Opportunities: Policy and Theory Considerations: 9. Theory in educational history: a middle ground Carl F. Kaestle; 10. Approaches to urban education in the USA and UK David Coulby; 11. The uses and abuses of comparison in urban educational history David L. Angus.