Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris

ISBN: 156663427X

Author: Carmona, Michel

Condition: Used

Baron Haussmann, the famous architect of modern Paris, has been an enigma for historians for more than a century. But in Michel Carmona, the baron has found a biographer worthy of his fascinating and influential life. Haussmann is not, however, a book only about the controversial prefect of the Seine: Mr. Carmona has effectively set his life against the background of nineteenth-century European society. Exhaustively researched and written with remarkable balance, the book is as much a social and political history as it is a biography. We see Haussmanns early years and his entry into civic life as an administrator; the problems of urban existence faced by the city of Paris; Haussmanns reign as the designated chief of Napoléon IIIs grand scheme for the renewal of the French capital; and the so-called Haussmannization of Paris. Some observers today still see Haussmanns grands travaux as the criminal work of a modern Nero-a man intent on destroying old Paris and willing to cook the books and throw poor people out of their homes in order to achieve his ends. Others see him as a clairvoyant creator of the modern, hygienic, and organized city, who created a style that would become a model for urban transformation. Mr. Carmona has examined the record and has written a superb biography that will be of special interest to architects, urban planners, and anyone interested in the life of great cities. With 12 pages of black-and-white illustrations.