This clear, lucid and richly illustrated study, based on a formidable amount of new archival research, explores the physical transformation of Edinburgh in the nineteenth century. Richard Rodger's powerful book shows how landowners, builders and investors pursued their own agendas and in doing so reshaped the Victorian towns and cities that the twentieth century inherited. Historians—whether political, urban, economic, social or legal—will find challenging new insights here, which have a resonance far beyond the confines of one city.