Abstract: This book begins by describing the eighteenth-century American city and its cultural landscape. The introduction discusses the social, economic, political, cultural, and military importance of the cities in the British Empire. A brief synopsis recounts the history of the cities from the turbulent 1740s through the Seven Years' War and the imperial crisis, and summarizes the content of the book's chapters. The introduction explains why political mobilization is a useful concept for understanding the imperial crisis and the origins of the American Revolution. Americans who sought to overturn the policies of Parliament (and later sought to overthrow the British government) faced a number of challenges: the pluralistic urban environment and the potential for civic impasse; social unrest; Loyalist countermobilization; and communication with the rural hinterlands.

Keywords: British Empire,, imperial crisis,, cultural landscape,, political mobilization,, urban environment,, civic impasse,, countermobilization,, communication,, social unrest,