Anarchism and the City is a fascinating look at four decades of tension preceding the Spanish Civil War, and the actors in competition for control of social and economic space in the expanding industrial city of Barcelona--host to the largest anarchist movement in Europe's history. This history from below examines the burgeoning public sphere of working-class life and its relationship to the State, industrial bourgeoisie, and professional classes. Unemployment, rent strikes, and rising food prices are the backdrop to this laboratory of emergent urbanism.

Chris Ealham is a lecturer at Saint Louis University in Madrid and co-editor of The Splintering of Spain.