Since her first publications, Judith Walkowitz has always impressed the historical world by her choice of subjects, by her methodology and by the conviction she conveys in her argument. These points can also be applied to Nights Out. Life in Cosmopolitan London (2012), her latest book in which she studies the district of Soho between 1890 and 1950. Soho, she proclaims, was the place where London's twentieth-century cosmopolitanism was created and fuelled thanks to the people living in the district, the forms of its representation and its nightlife. Walkowitz's argument responds to the question of the nature of the district and how Soho ‘transmuted from a dingy, foreign, proletarian quarter into a commodified centre of cultural tourism’ (p. 9). To achieve this, the author focuses on different aspects of the days and nights of Soho, from the influence of dancing on its representation to the culture of shopping and the typical journey of different customers on a night out. This all leads to an extremely well-referenced book on the cultural history of this district, but more specifically on the history of certain nightclubs, providing a unique focus to the book. Illustrations convincingly reinforce the overall argument and throughout the chapters the notion of cosmopolitanism is discussed, highlighting the paradoxical nature of the district, as a space combining both central and peripheral functions in the heart of the capital city. This opposition of centre/periphery is seen in the depiction of the relations between men and women of, in and from outside Soho and through the racial tensions that appeared with the development of black clubs or the rise of anti-Semitism, and from a more general perspective through a characteristic disdain for foreigners analysed in Chapters 4, 5 and 7. Similarly, class oppositions are clearly defined, notably in Chapter 8 on the Windmill Theatre, and give the reader the opportunity to understand the rising conflicts which are possibly inherent to the nature of a cosmopolitan place.

Walkowitz builds her arguments on a wide range of primary sources, which also accounts for the fact that this book is extremely well documented. She relies on sources such as visual representations, oral histories, Mass Observation archives but also magazines and literature (novels, memoirs) on Soho and more official records such as police reports. All political tendencies are represented through these primary sources, but also different degrees of subjectivity, which ultimately distort the historical reality of 1890–1950 Soho. One might argue that the memories of the interviewees could have been put into better perspective and implications of oral history could have been discussed in greater length. Though varied in terms of references and anecdotes, more precise data would have given the opportunity to contrast the representation of Soho through people's memories with lived reality; the average number of customers in clubs and restaurants and its evolution over time, or estimates of the number of people moving through Soho on a daily basis, would have given more weight to personal memories of the district. Without transforming this study into a quantitative analysis of Soho, which would have denatured the aim of the book, a more general appreciation of the number of people living, working and more importantly crossing this specific environment would have been welcome. Similarly, focusing on two types of immigrants, of Jewish and Italian descent, gives the impression that other immigrants or English people living in the district were being left aside and had a lesser impact on the cultural development of Soho. The question whether Italians and Jews were indeed the most important communities or the most influential figures in the social and racial construction of Soho would have benefited from a more sustained engagement. Walkowitz also gives some interesting statistics on the number of inhabitants, which gradually decreased from 24,000 to 7,240 over the course of the period under review, but this movement of population is not clearly defined: why and where did these citizens go? If property development and structural changes in the economy (e.g. sweat shops, p. 290) accelerated people's migration out of the district (Walkowitz mentions Golders Green), it is not said what the remaining inhabitants thought of this decrease in population. One might also wonder whether the people who moved away from Soho took with them part of this cosmopolitan culture and tried to recreate this distinctive environment in other districts of London. Which brings me to my next point: whereas some customary movements of population are highlighted (such as East Enders enjoying the pleasures of Soho in Chapter 1, or the very convincing discussion of young working women of the West End benefiting from Berwick Street's market in Chapter 5), it is less clear how the Sohoites saw these people or ‘outsiders’ coming into their own space and using it for a specific time, and how people who did not work in the entertainment or catering businesses, but who lived in Soho, dealt with the frasques of the night travellers and other gangsters. Walkowitz chooses to mention day-to-day transactions such as shopping, but a deeper analysis of variation in the use of Soho spaces between day and night (who could be found in the street, what did Berwick Street and Gerrard Street become at night or day?) would have given a closer insight on the social practice and the appropriation of the urban space by Sohoites.

Nights Out remains an invaluable study on the cultural history of Soho and clearly defines the cultural transition undergone by the district during the first half of the twentieth century. The role of its catering and entertaining establishments in the process of cosmopolitanization of the district is highlighted as it has never been done before.