The idea for this book was first discussed at the 8th International Conference on Urban History organised by the European Urban History Association in Stockholm in 2006. Three of the chapters started as papers there in a session entitled ‘Animals in the City’ and five others are by participants.

Animated Cities is a book that builds upon a recent surge of interest among historians about animals in the urban context. It follows a four-fold agenda. First, the opening chapters look at working and productive animals that lived and died in nineteenth-century cities such as London,...