This year's review is slightly shorter than usual, but does provide a broad overview of the types of current research being undertaken in the field of urban history by doctoral students in Great Britain and North America. As in previous years, the survey employs a wide interpretation of ‘urban history’ which includes both the history of, and history in, urban areas. Providing brief summaries of a selection of abstracts published in the Aslib Index to Theses [ASLIB] and Dissertations Abstracts International [DAI] of theses completed mostly in 1998 and 1999, it attempts to highlight both the novel and traditional in current research.