The constant flow of people, ideas, and commodities across the Atlantic propelled the development of a public sphere and a transnational urban imaginary, influencing national and international cultural and political intersections and innovations. The contributors in Urban Identity and the Atlantic World explore the multiple ways in which a growing urban consciousness was integrated into the more cosmopolitan and transnational creation of an Atlantic public sphere. Wide-ranging, this volume brings together research using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches from social history to literary studies, and from indigenous studies and Africana studies to theatre history.

The constant flow of people, ideas, and commodities across the Atlantic propelled the development of a public sphere. Chapters explore the multiple ways in which a growing urban consciousness influenced national and international cultural and political intersections.