City of light : the making of modern Paris /
In 1853, the French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works, directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann's renovation of Paris would transform the old medieval city of squalid slums and disease-ridden alleyways into a "C...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Basic Books,
[2018]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | In 1853, the French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works, directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann's renovation of Paris would transform 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 railway 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. A lively and engaging read, City of Light is a book for anyone who wants to know how Paris became Paris. |
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| Physical Description: | vii, 206 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781541673397 1541673395 |