Catherine Clarke's marvellous edited anthology, Mapping the Medieval City, offers a fascinating account of what maps, chronicles, literary texts, and other sources tell us about the multiple and shifting meanings of Chester from c1200-1500. The volume's twelve learned and lucid essays are a must read for anyone interested in not only the particular case of medieval Chester but also, more generally, the history of the city. Kathy Lavezzo, Associate Professor of English, University of Iowa Few material phenomena are as complex as the city. In its border location, the changing form of Chester dramatically reflects the vicissitudes of military, political and economic fortune, and social difference and conflict within. This book is a model of multidisciplinary coherency, with a diverse collection of intelligent and thoughtful papers which not only reveal how medieval men and women in Chester made sense of their habitat for themselves but at the same time map the solid, autonomous reality of the place. John Hines, Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University Clarke has organized an impressive multidisciplinary collection that also works well as a whole. Along with the Mapping Medieval Chester web site she has created a resource that will be of use to a range of scholars and students, and a scholarly project that serves as a model for others in its clarity of purpose and range of applications. Journal of Historical Geography xxx (2014) 1-2 - Christina M. Fitzgerald, The University of Toledo, USA
