ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the trajectory of research in the discipline of history and discusses some of the ways in which "urban" has come to be redefined through some key works. It overviews the interdisciplinary origins and character of urban history. The chapter primarily focuses on the North American trajectory, but similar interdisciplinary efforts undergirded urban histories emerging from Western Europe in the early twentieth century. It explores the ways in which rapid urbanization stimulated a second wave of urban history research in the second half of the twentieth century, this time in response to evolving urban landscapes in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The chapter explains the evolving definitions of the urban and emerging research topics in urban history. The urban is about cities, certainly, but it is importantly a vehicle for probing the relationships between built form and settlement patterns.
