The urban world is a provocative terrain on which to contemplate the central institutions, structures and problems of the social world and how they have transformed over the last two hundred years. This reader traverses this terrain through sections on urban social theory, social difference in the city, culture in everyday life, culture and the urban economy, globalization and the world system and urban social movements. Drawing together seminal selections covering the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, this reader collects forty significant writings from eminent names such as Simmel, Wirth, Park, Burgess, Zukin, Sassen, Smith and Castells. Selections are predominantly sociological, but some readings cross disciplinary boundaries. Providing an essential resource for students of urban studies, this book brings together important but, till now, widely dispersed writings. Editorial commentaries precede each entry; introducing the text, demonstrating its significance, and outlining the issues surrounding its topic, whilst the associated bibliography enables deeper investigations.