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Educational history has been regularly noticed in the Urban History Yearbook in reviews, and in the bibliography under the heading of urban culture, but it has been a minority interest among urban historians and in Britain the treatment of schools and schooling in town histories has tended until recently to be perfunctory or conventional. However, the impact of social and cultural history on both urban and educational history is resulting in more of an overlap of interests. Hence the publication later this year, in the series of themes in International Urban History, of a set of comparative essays on urban educational history: The City and Education in Four Nations. This article anticipates the historiographical reviews, case studies and theoretical discussions of that volume. It attempts to show, from a British perspective, how recent historiographical bends raise questions and issues of interest to urban historians of the modern period.

The annual number of completed theses which can be reasonably described as having urban themes has remained quite steady in recent years. In the lists of the Institute of Historical Research, for example, it is possible to identify 58 theses as having urban themes in the return for 1985, 41 theses in the 1986 return and 50 theses in that for 1987. It is true that in many cases such theses are not written as contributions to urban history specifically, but nevertheless they can provide much useful information and new insights on urban processes and town life even when the urban aspect of the study is incidental to the main theme. This is especially true of the selection made for this year's review which focuses more than usually on theses concerned directly or indirectly with aspects of urban society and politics in the past, and with a particular emphasis on the history of the urban working class. The review covers mostly theses completed in 1986–7 with some late additions from earlier years. It is based necessarily on the abstracts except for about a third of the theses noticed where it has been possible to examine the text. However, the aim of the review is to indicate the interest which a thesis might have for urban historians rather than to give a comprehensive assessment – which is probablynappropriate for unpublished work.

From the early 1960s until his sudden and unexpected death in August 1978, Jim Dyos was the chief inspiration, proselytizer and ambassador of urban history in Britain. Through many personal contacts and friendships in various parts of the world, he gave to all those connected with his chosen pursuit the sense of belonging to a great international family. It was entirely in keeping with his ambitions that he had been planning a major international conference to chart the progress made since the earlier agenda for urban history was set out at Leicester in 1966, and to highlight those methodological issues which should be confronted if urban historians are to sustain an innovative role into the 1980s. This conference will still take place with the help of a committee which had been working with him, the intention being to publish a volume based on the proceedings as the most fitting tribute to his memory. Nevertheless, it seemed right to begin this issue of theYearbookwith a short appreciation of the way Jim Dyos contributed to the study and enjoyment of urban history through his own teaching, research and writings.