One of the defining issues in the transition from agrarian to industrial society is the role played by urbanization in the creation ofindustrial modernity. The approach to this issue derivingfrom "urban history " consists of intensive case study research focused on particular urban places. A second approach, inspired by traditions in geography, demography. and planning. focuses on systems of cities and the role of such systems in promoting and reflecting the process of economic development. Practitioners of this approach insist that urban history should be a history of urbanization that transcends the experiences of individual urban communities. This essay is a comparison and critique of models developed by theorists from this second group. The comparison focuses on how four broad themes - trade, production, population. and state-building - function as prime movers of urbanization and economic modernization. The results of this comparison suggest that population movements play a decisive role in urban development and the transition to industrial modernity but these population shifts are best understood in conjunction with the impacts of trade patterns. production activities. and state-building.

Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba's economic development has been marked by efforts to achieve four basic objectives.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Jean years of the Depression that followed in its wake, brought about a fundamental transformation in the structure of American free enterprise. The legislation enacted by the Roosevelt administration that put the economy on a new footing, also established the basis for the nation's first systematic housing policy, eventually legislated officiallyas The Housing Act of 1949.

When the economy collapsed, the mortgage system collapsed as well, adding to the depth of the plunge into the Depression. These conditions precipitated massive social protest movements, especially among industrial workers and the unemployed. The dilemma faced by the Roosevelt administration was how to preserve the basic features of the market system, while at the same time incorporate but circumscribe the social protest of millions of Americans. Out of this dilemma emerged a new type of free enterprise system in which the State, for the first time, began to play a decisive role in the operations of the country's financial markets. The other pro­ duct of Roosevelt's actions was perhaps even more significant. This was the establishment of what has been termed "The Welfare State " .