City of Light

August 27, 2018
Christiansen (Prima Donna: A History), a writer on the arts for the British Daily Telegraph, describes how, during the Second Empire period (1851–1871), Paris became a modern city known for its broad boulevards lined with five- or six-story apartment buildings, parks, and monuments. The city’s population had grown rapidly, and “its oases of splendor, such as the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, surrounded by a fetid wilderness of filth, stench, and crime.” Almost single-handedly responsible for the city’s transformation was Georges Eugène Haussmann, a kind of mid-19th-century French Robert Moses. Christiansen portrays Haussmann as an arrogant but incorruptible workaholic who incorporated 12 surrounding villages into Paris, instantly increasing its population by a third, and he impressively tackled the herculean task of supplying the burgeoning city with an adequate water supply and sewage system. As with Moses, Haussmann’s urban engineering often had a pernicious effect on the poor, who were “badly hit by the rise in rents and crowded... into the attics, basements, hallways, and stairways of buildings that Haussmann had yet to condemn.” Yet for the middle and upper classes, the city became more spacious and beautiful, boasting such new, captivating structures as Charles Garnier’s Opéra. This very readable volume is a valuable contribution to modern French and urban history.

September 1, 2018
A concise yet admirably thorough account of the reinvention of one of the world's great cities.Longtime Daily Telegraph arts writer Christiansen (Literature/Keble Coll., Oxford; I Know You Are Going to be Happy: The Story of a Sixties Family, 2013, etc.), who has won the Somerset Maugham Award, opens with the 1875 debut of architect Charles Garnier's opulent, ostentatious Opéra, the very emblem of Second Empire extravagance. But the real story begins decades earlier. Many readers think of Paris as a timeless museum of grace and beauty. In 1853, when French Emperor Louis Napoleon undertook a massive public works program under the direction of the brilliant but ruthless Baron Haussmann, much of Paris was, in fact, a fetid slum with a few sanctuaries of splendor. Inspired by the emperor's admiration for London's municipal works, cost (both monetary and human) would be no object. The author details how this campaign of leveling and building transformed Paris from curved forms into straight lines and broad vistas, creating almost as much upheaval as improvement. He gives due credit to Haussmann's key collaborators, demonstrating how an ideology of efficiency ruled and how a banking boom underwrote it--along with immense government debt. While giving voice to Haussmann's most ardent critics, who were appalled by his aesthetic and deplored the banality of the new Paris' thirst for amusement, Christiansen shows how many of the more sensible measures were social investments that benefited everyone, especially sanitation, the greening of Paris, and the educational reforms of Jean Victor Duruy. The author also showcases the influence exerted by an era of free trade and burgeoning technologies. He develops a crisply written narrative that moves from Louis' ascent to the presidency through France's disastrous war with Prussia, the collapse of the Second Empire, and the bloodbath of a Parisian civil war.Capsule character studies of Louis and Haussmann enrich an engrossing short history that reminds us of the urban planning and social engineering blunders we continue to make today.

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October 15, 2018

Wide boulevards, leafy parks, charming squares, pleasing fountains, and fin de siècle architecture characterized by Charles Garnier's l'Opéra define for many the very essence of Parisian life. The urban renewal project that created the city as we now know it was conceived, designed, and implemented primarily by two ambitious and controversial figures: Napoléon III, the president of France from 1848 to 1852, and his public works mastermind, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. British author Christiansen (Paris Babylon; Romantic Affinities) does an excellent job of placing the transformation of Paris within the context of political, social, and economic influences of the time. Against the backdrop of a Europe in transition, the time period covered is from Louis Napoléon's ascent to power to the collapse of the Paris Commune in 1871. VERDICT This popular history is a quick and enjoyable read for anyone interested in how City of Light came to be.--Linda Frederiksen, Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2018
Paris as we know it today, with its broad boulevards, majestic squares, and ornate apartment blocks, came into being under Louis Napoleon, who wanted to create a capital worthy of his nascent Second Empire aspirations. Employing Baron Haussmann turned out to be his master stroke, as Haussmann had engineering, financial, architectural, aesthetic, and political talents to bring off this massive undertaking. Author Christiansen focuses his efforts on illuminating Haussmann's personality, his remarkable intelligence, and his foresight. Haussmann thought not only about how Paris would appear but how it might function better, its municipal water and sewer systems becoming a model for all future city planners. Specific architects also changed the city's face, Charles Garnier and his iconic opera house the leading example. But Louis Napoleon stood pulling the strings and holding the power. Paris' reconstruction was one factor in his scheme to replace the nation's Second Republic with the Second Empire. His tactics now sound eerily familiar: restrictions on voting rights, tax reduction leading to deficits, appeal to oppressed classes. Good reading for all lovers of the City of Light.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)