Analysis of the architecture, iconography, and spatial relations that constitute the town hall to explore its historical ability to accommodate the "public" in different political and social contexts

Acknowledgements Foreword by Laura Kolbe Introduction 1. City Halls: Civic Representation and Public Space by Swati Chattopadhyay and Jeremy White 2. "A Laudable Pride in the Whole of Us": City Halls and Civic Materialism by Mary P. Ryan 3. Communicating Civic or National Pride? The City Hall as Communal "Hotel" in Scandinavian Capital Cities by Laura Kolbe 4. Rebuilding City Halls in Post-war Germany: Architectural Form and Identity by Jeffry M. Diefendorf 5. Old Town Hall in Prague: An Unresolved Architectural Challenge by Veronika Knotková and Hana SvatoSová 6. Town Halls in Australia: Sites of Conflict and Consensus by Jenny Gregory 7. Courting the Council: Popular Petitioning and the Municipal Palace in Morelia, Mexico, 1880-1930 by Christina M. Jiménez 8. The Bombay Town Hall: Engaging the Function and Quality of Public Space, 1811-1918 by Preeti Chopra 9. Los Angeles City Hall: Space, Form and Gesture by Jeremy White 10. Politics, Planning, and Subjection: Anti-colonial Nationalism and Public Space in Calcutta by Swati Chattopadhyay 11. Transformation of Public Space in Fascist Italy by Lucy Maulsby 12. Moving Beyond Colonialism: Town Halls and Sub-Saharan Africa's Postcolonial Capitals by Garth A. Myers 13. Jakarta's City Hall: A Political History by Abidin Kusno 14. Seoul Spectacle: the City Hall, the Plaza, and the Public by Hong Kal Epilogue Index.