ABSTRACT
This epilogue revisits the preceding eleven chapters by highlighting four common themes that run through them: (port-)cityness and mobility; periodization; spaces of politics and law; and labor. The author argues that these themes show how a focus on migration can help to interrogate the assumed specificity of port cities in history. While mobility is taken as a weaker indicator, the epilogue presents the themes of periodization, spaces of politics and law, and labor as more promising avenues of investigation. Additional empirical research on these themes could substantiate claims about port cities’ historical specificity. Moreover, further studies would allow historians to consider whether port cities can serve as a useful entry point to write a global urban history beyond Europe and North America.
