Introduction: writing the history of port cities after the global turn

Abstract

The steam-driven transport revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries dramatically altered the geography of globalization, fuelling rapid urbanization at an unprecedented scale in port cities across the globe. Whereas global historians have primarily studied port cities because of their function in globe-spanning networks, this special issue explores the intersection of global and urban history from a socio-environmental perspective. Crucially, the contributions to this issue underline that the creation of port cities, and their social histories, must be understood in relation to local landscapes, both built and natural, and their transformations over time.