The 272 pages provide information on when small towns first emerged in Estonia, as well as details from a Riga address book published at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which describes life in those small towns at the time.

The book focuses primarily on life in small towns during the first half of the 20th century, while also briefly touching on the major changes that took place at the beginning of the Soviet era. The first chapter discusses the history of the development of Estonian small towns, as well as their social, economic, and cultural characteristics. In the second chapter, we provide a brief overview of the built environment of small towns, revealing that the greatest differences in this regard were found between, so to speak, traditional rural craftand commercial towns and industrial towns. The third chapter is devoted to daily life in the towns, including lifestyle, living conditions, and healthcare.
The final section of the book consists of excerpts from German-language address books published in Riga between 1890 and 1910, of which quite a few were published in the provinces of Estonia and Livonia. These included a separate section on towns and villages, which provided detailed and specific information about local authorities and intellectual leaders, listed the most important local institutions, schools, businesses and artisans/entrepreneurs, societies, and other nonprofit organizations… Perhaps what makes these books most valuable today are the people listed by name who were active in one town or another.