在明清的帝都北京，大大小小的寺庙庵观曾经遍布于大街小巷、宫殿园林乃至官府监狱。从皇帝、贵族、士大夫到吏役、商人和普通市民，都是宗教活动参与者。寺庙不仅是神明和僧道的居所，也是城市社会的公共空间。
韩书瑞、魏丕信等海内外著名学者聚焦于明清至民国时期的中国城市特别是北京，从寺庙与城市的社会格局、皇家的宗教生活，以及北京几座寺庙的命运等面向出发，考察了城市精英在宗教生活与寺庙管理中的角色，更探讨了不同社会群体之间围绕北京城的寺庙所发生的关系变化。
书中出现的碑刻、档案等一手资料，多为首次公开使用。此外，书中广泛而深入的田野调查也让我们得以辨识古老庙宇的遗迹，从而找寻对过去的回忆。这些资料与调查提醒我们，尽管如今关于“场所的记忆”经过了修改或文饰，但它们依然是了解旧时城市居民身份认同的重要甚至唯一的途径。
【编辑推荐】
相信“子不语怪力乱神”的儒家官员为何又频频求助于神佛？
在城隍庙中，各方势力如何钩心斗角？
中国的地狱与西方的地狱有何不同？
寺庙有时是可转手的“买卖”，还能在佛道之间自由切换。
最热衷于修庙的是皇帝和太监。
笃信佛教的皇帝与国师的有趣对话。
念经的真和尚和奏乐唱曲的假和尚。
法国远东学院北京中心与北京师范大学民俗典籍文字研究中心联合举办国际学术会议“明清至民国时期中国城市的寺庙与市民”，中外学者35人与会，共发表论文23篇，集成此书。

In 1980, William H. Whyte published the findings from his revolutionary Street Life Project in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Both the book and the accompanying film were instantly labeled classics, and launched a mini-revolution in the planning and study of public spaces. They have since become standard texts, and appear on syllabi and reading lists in urban planning, sociology, environmental design, and architecture departments around the world.




Project for Public Spaces, which grew out of Holly's Street Life Project and continues his work around the world, has acquired the reprint rights to Social Life, with the intent of making it available to the widest possible audience and ensuring that the Whyte family receive their fair share of Holly's legacy.




From the forward:




For more than 30 years, Project for Public Spaces has been using observations, surveys, interviews and workshops to study and transform public spaces around the world into community places. Every week we give presentations about why some public spaces work and why others don't, using the techniques, ideas, and memorable phrases from William H. "Holly" Whyte's The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.




Holly Whyte was both our mentor and our friend. Perhaps his most important gift was the ability to show us how to discover for ourselves why some public spaces work and others don't. With the publication of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and its companion film in 1980, the world could see that through the basic tools of observation and interviews, we can learn an immense amount about how to make our cities more livable. In doing so, Holly Whyte laid the groundwork for a major movement to change the way public spaces are built and planned. It is our pleasure to offer this important book back to the world it is helping to transform.

本书不是把城市作为历史人物和事件的舞台，而是综合考察北京这个古老帝都本身的转型，以及被塑造成现代中国“文化城市”的过程。作者指出，今天所认为的“老北京”其实并不很老，它并不是帝都时代的北京，而是不那么遥远的民国北京。今天对老北京的兴趣在一定程度上是将历史商业化的产物。北京不仅是政治活动中心，也是各类人群的生存社会。在作者的观察视野下，北京城获得了深刻的、实质性的学者叙述。
——唐晓峰
《民国北京城》是第一部对民国时期北京的空间变迁、日常物质生活及其文化表述做出系统研究的重要学术专著，与其他研究北京的著作相比，该书的一个独特视点在于对民国时期北京的普通人群及其日常生活实践的极大关注。“传统的回收”这一概念的独到应用具有很大的启示，它对过去与现在、旧与新、物质与文化的认识提供了一个新的辩证的视点。
——张鹂