Book description
The Paris we know today, with its grand boulevards, its bridges and
parks, its monumental beauty, was essentially built in only seventeen
years, in the middle of the nineteenth century. In this brief period,
whole neighborhoods of medieval and revolutionary Paris -- over-crowded,
dangerous, and filthy -- were razed, and from the rubble a modern city
of light and air emerged. This triumphant rebuilding was chiefly the
work of one man, Baron Georges Haussmann, Napoleon III's Prefect of the Seine.
It was Haussmann's task to assert, in stone, the power and permanence
of Paris, to show the world that it was the seat of an empire of
mythic proportions. To this end, he imposed grand visual perspectives,
as when he transformed Napoleon I's Arc de Triomphe into a magnificent
twelve-armed star from which radiated the broadest boulevards of
Europe. Below ground, his modern sewer system became one of the
wonders of the civilized world, eagerly toured by royalty and
commoners alike.
Haussmann's mandate was not only to create an impression of grandeur
but to secure the city for better control by government. By creating
formal spaces where there had previously been a maze of chaotic
streets, Haussmann opened Paris to effective police control and
thwarted the recurrent demonstration of its well-known revolutionary
fervor. The determined and autocratic Haussmann imprinted rational
order and bourgeois civility on the unruly city which had for so long
simmered with riot and insurrection.
Though he planted chestnut trees, installed gas lights, rebuilt the
water supply, and improved transportation and housing, Haussmann's
labors were (and remain) controversial. He forced tens of thousands of
the poor from the center of the city, and destroyed significant parts
of old Paris. But in this important new biography David Jordan reminds
us that Haussmann was not immune to the charms of the old city. By
leaving some areas intact, the Baron achieved the grand effect of
implanting a modern city boldly within an ancient one. Here, at last,
Haussmann's labors are given the aesthetic as well as the historical
appreciation they deserve.
John Merriman Yale University Was Haussmann merely
the "Alastian Attila," or was he a brilliant visionary who
created modern Paris? In this elegant, beautifully written book, David
Jordan evokes and assesses this controversial man and the great city.
David P. Jordan is Professor of History at the University
of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Chicago.
