Exploring diverse cultural productions from poems and paintings, to exhibition sites, panoramas, and political organizations, some of the most exciting critics of Romanticism do long-overdue justice to the role of the city in British Romanticism. Their essays challenge the traditional conception that Romanticism was rooted in nature and rural life, by demonstrating that much of its uniqueness originated within the city. Examining the Romantic period from the urban perspective, they reveal how rapid developments in population, industry, communication, trade, and technology set the stage and the tone for many great literary and cultural achievements.