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City of Light
City of Light: The Making of Modern Paris | Rupert Christiansen
1 post | 2 read
A sparkling account of the nineteenth-century reinvention of Paris as the most beautiful, exciting city in the world In 1853, French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works in Paris, directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann transformed the old medieval city of squalid slums and disease-ridden alleyways into a "City of Light" characterized by wide boulevards, apartment blocks, parks, squares and public monuments, new rail stations and department stores, and a new system of public sanitation. City of Light charts this fifteen-year project of urban renewal which--despite the interruptions of war, revolution, corruption, and bankruptcy--set a template for nineteenth and early twentieth-century urban planning and created the enduring landscape of modern Paris now so famous around the globe. Lively and engaging, City of Light is a book for anyone who wants to know how Paris became Paris.
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Rosewinter
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This was an interesting but technical read about some of the architects, rulers, and leaders that changed and develop the city to eventually lead to modern day Paris. It was full of good info. 2 drawbacks: a bit dry and ends in the late 1800s. Really liked the time line piece in the book.