* The first pan-European planning historiography * The next logical step in international planning historiography after the Routledge Handbook of Planning History * International authors, including worldwide leading scholars * A combination of established topics and questions (for example, housing and heritage) and innovative ones (informal planning in Europe, planning and dictatorship, planning and anarchism) * A critical review of the planning of unrestrained growth societies at a point in time when new models of development, such as the Green Deal, are being sought, and which are also dependent on spatial planning

* The first pan-European planning historiography * The next logical step in international planning historiography after the Routledge Handbook of Planning History * International authors, including worldwide leading scholars * A combination of established topics and questions (for example, housing and heritage) and innovative ones (informal planning in Europe, planning and dictatorship, planning and anarchism) * A critical review of the planning of unrestrained growth societies at a point in time when new models of development, such as the Green Deal, are being sought, and which are also dependent on spatial planning

The redevelopment of historical centers became an important policy field in the era of European dictatorships following the First World War. At that time historical centers were regarded as shabby and as tarnishing the desired image of a magnificent new city, of a showcase of the dictatorship. This led to the widespread demolition of older buildings. Historical streets and squares disappeared and were replaced by new apartments and workplaces for the loyal middle classes, by car-friendly roads and ostentatious new buildings. Nevertheless, the redevelopment of historical centers did not exclusively mean the eradication of the 'old town'. The aim of the dictatorship in many cases was also the preservation, and often the cultic display, of historical testimonials to past greatness. The book presents examples of the redevelopment of historical centers in Mussolini's Italy, in Stalin's Soviet Union, in Hitler's Germany, in Salazar's Portugal and in Franco's Spain.