Despite the port’s prominence in maritime history, its cultural significance has long been neglected in favour of its role within economic and imperial networks. Defined by their intersection of maritime and urban space, port towns were sites of complex cultural exchanges. This book, the product of international scholarship, offers innovative and challenging perspectives on the cultural histories of ports, ranging from eighteenth-century Africa to twentieth-century Australasia and Europe. The essays in this important collection explore two key themes; the nature and character of ‘sailortown’ culture and port-town life, and the representations of port towns that were forged both within and beyond urban-maritime communities. The book’s exploration of port town identities and cultures, and its use of a rich array of methodological approaches and cultural artefacts, will make it of great interest to both urban and maritime historians. It also represents a major contribution to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of coastal studies.

A fascinating history of nineteenth century Eastern Mediterranean port cities, re-examining European influence over the changing lives of their urban populations.

Port Towns of Gujarat offers new insights on cost-hinterland connections, urbanmorphology, port cities and littoral societies, the role of Gujarat in the Indian Ocean and data on the history of Gujarat, the Indian Ocean, and the many great port cities on India s northwest coast."

Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant communities, and international trade networks. This in-depth comparative study examines contradictory global legacies across themes of urban identity, waterfront work and radicalism in key post-industrial port cities worldwide.

Scholars from multiple disciplines explore similarities, dissimilarities and the ways in which sea-based networking influences urban landscapes and architecture, socio-economic and cultural development from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

A social history of cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia's ethnically diverse port cities, seen within the global context of the interwar era.