ABSTRACT
The dynamics of the urban, whether historical or contemporary, are perennially fascinating, and contested. Comparative and transnational studies are not immune to the same criticism. The trans refers to beyond, rather than to across, and is an important or subtle reminder of the linguistic root of transnationalism. The common denominator, the socio-economic structures associated with the principal product, provides a comparative, potentially a transnational, basis for analysis and illuminates an understanding of the urbanizing process. If the comparative methodology is illuminating in understanding the urban paradigm, then cross-border studies should be particularly helpful. More confidently, Sam Bass Warner captured the range and diversity of the urban in his presidential address to the Urban History Association in 1991 entitled 'When urban history is at the center of the curriculum'. If the urban history agenda was to investigate general processes or laws, then the focus had necessarily to be wider than the individual event, or town.
