The history of Europe in the 20th century is closely tied to the history of urban planning.
Social and economic progress but also the brute treatment of people and nature throughout
Europe were possible due to the use of urban planning and the other levels of spatial planning.

Thereby, planning has constituted itself in Europe as an international subject. Since its emer-
gence, through intense exchange but also competition, despite country differences, planning has

developed as a European field of practice and scientific discipline. Planning is here much more
than the addition of individual histories; however, historiography has treated this history very
selective regarding geography and content.
This book searches for an understanding of the historiography of planning in a European
dimension. Scholars from Eastern and Western, Southern and Northern Europe address the issues
of the public led production of city and the social functions of urban planning in capitalist and
state-socialist countries. The examined examples include Poland and USSR, Czech Republic
and Slovakia, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain, Italy, and Sweden. The
book will be of interest to students and scholars for Urbanism, Urban/Town Planning, Spatial
Planning, Spatial Politics, Urban Development, Urban Policies, Planning History and European
History of the 20th Century.