In European Urbanization Jan de Vries provides the first comprehensive data base for understanding the nature of the changes that took place in European cities from 1500 to 1800. The book is based on an immense systematic survey of the population history of 379 European cities with 10,000 or more inhabitants analyzed a fifty-year intervals. Using a wide range of economic, demographic and geographic models, de Vries illustrates patterns of urban growth, draws conclusions about the significance of migratory behavior and shows the effects of urbanization on the history of European as a whole.