By way of introduction, several important studies on Latin American cities, which range beyond the period 1870–1930, are particularly useful: Jorge E. Hardoy and Carlos Tobar (eds.), La urbanización en la América Latina (Buenos Aires, 1969), especially the essay on Argentina by José Luis Bacigalupo; Jorge E. Hardoy (ed.), Urbanization in Latin America: Approaches and Issues (New York, 1975), especially the articles by Hardoy himself and by Richard M. Morse; Richard M. Morse (ed.), Las ciudades latinoamericanas, 2 vols. (Mexico, D.F., 1973), I, Antecedentes, 2, Desarrollo histórico; and José Luis Romero, Latinoamérica: Las ciudades y las ideas (Mexico, D.F., 1976). In addition, useful items appear in the following collections: Institut des Hautes Études de l’Amérique Latine, Villes et régions en Amérique Latine (Paris, 1970; Spanish trans., Mexico, D.F., 1973), with studies on Cuzco, Medellín, Guadalajara and the cities of Minas Gerais, Brazil; Richard P. Schaedel, Jorge E. Hardoy and Nora Scott Kinzer (eds.), Urbanization in the Americas from Its Beginnings to the Present (The Hague, 1978), especially the articles by Alejandro Rofman, Richard M. Morse, James R. Scobie, Roberto Cortés Conde and Nancy López de Nisnovich, Spencer L. Leitman and Jorge Balán; and Francisco de Solano (ed.), Historia y futuro de la ciudad iberoamericana (Madrid, 1986), especially the essay by Rolando Mellafe, ‘La desruralización de la ciudad hispanoamericana en el siglo XIX’, 75–88.

Because of the complex, multidimensional nature of the urban experience, historical scholarship on the problems and issues of urbanization has drawn heavily on the insights of disciplines outside history. The sociologists have been the most productive, starting with early influential studies such as Andrew H. Whiteford, Two Cities of Latin America: A Comparative Description of Social Classes (Beloit, Wis., 1960), a stimulating comparison of Popayán, Colombia, and Querétaro, Mexico, which has since been refocused on Popayán alone in An Andean City at Mid-Century: A Traditional Urban Society (East Lansing, Mich., 1977); Phillip M. Hauser and Leo F. Schnore (eds.), The Study of Urbanization (New York, 1965), especially the chapters by Gideon Sjoberg and by Schnore; and Gerald Breese (ed.), Urbanization in Newly Developing Countries (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1969).