Barcelona is the second book in Polity’s exciting new ‘Citiesin World History’ series, which provides the general readerand traveller with historically informed companions to theworld’s greatest cities. These new books bridge the gapbetween guide and history by offering concise and accessibleaccounts written by some of the world’s leading historians.Barcelona has existed as a settlement for two millennia.Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths,Arabs and Franks shaped (and sometimes destroyed) thecity before it achieved, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance,global power as a trading metropolis and capital of theAragonese-Catalan Empire. After a long period of strugglewith the unifying Spanish state in the early modern period,the city revived in the 18th and 19th centuries as anindustrial and commercial powerhouse. It became a centreof culture, ornamented by modern planning and wondrousworks by Gaudi, Picasso, Miro and others. At the sametime, Barcelona became known as ‘the rose of fire’: hometo revolutionaries and anarchists. Creativity and conflictcontinued to shape Barcelona in the 20th century, as itscitizens faced the Spanish Republic, Civil War and Franco’sdictatorship before the large-scale revitalisation of the cityfollowing the 1992 Olympics.As McDonogh and Martínez-Rigol link complex social andcultural currents to the rich architectural and experientialheritage of this multi-layered city, modern-day Barcelonareveals depths and surprises to visitors and residents alike.