প্রথম ফ্ল্যাপের লেখাঃ 400 Years of Capital Dhaka and Beyond Economp and Culture, Volume II is a compilation of essays on a wide range of topics relating to the economy and culture of Dhaka for the last four hundred years of its existence as a capital city intermittently though. The economic and cultural history of Dhaka has been discussed in these essays, each under a specifie chapter, with as much information as can be gleaned briefly to give a cohesiveness of the subject-matter within a single volume. Although the volume includes as many topics as may be required to publish a book complete by itself on the economic and cultural history of Dhaka covering four centuries, it may not be as complete as one may expect. The history of Dhaka is so colourful and fascinating that one may think of many more topics for inclusion in this volume. Because of the limitations of space and due to time-constraint even such interesting subjects as food habits and local customs have been left out, more so because these have been taken up in other publications under the programme called Celebration of 400 Years of Capital Dhaka through Scholarly and Development Works. The authors, who spared their valuable time and energy to contribute their essays to the volume, are recognized writers in their specific areas of study. They include scholars from Bangladesh and other countries like India, the USA, the Netherlands and France. The foreign scholars have given the book a flavour of multinational cooperation in scholarly works. Most importantly these foreign scholars have utilised sources preserved in their own archives and other places making their articles more authentic and rich. There are thirty articles in the book on subjects ranging from economic life, banking, commerce including those carried out by merchants of various countries even of Europe, education, literature, art, architecture, festival, songs, dance, sports and fashion. Surely the book would be of immense help to researchers who would wish to carry out their own researches in the related fields and the general readers who would like to know about the economy and culture of the mega-city Dhaka during the past four hundred years.