Constructing Paris in the Age of Revolution

The great myth of Parisian history is that the modern city was born with the Baron Haussmann's monumental reconstruction of the French capital in the second half of the nineteenth century. Constructing Paris in the Age of Revolution argues that Haussmannisation before Haussmann a hundred years earlier made Paris the capital of the eighteenth century. While the persistence of the black legend of uninterrupted revolutionary vandalism has led to meagre historical research into the construction of Paris in this period, Constructing Paris demonstrates that building represented a core sector of national urban, social, labour, and industrial policy. Allan Potofsky thus rehabilitates the vitality of Parisian building before and during the Revolution. And while architectural and urban historians often treat the history of construction through the careers and tastes of elite architects and urban planners - or through the structure and aesthetics of buildings, streets, and city designs - this book also examines the broader social, economic, and political history of workers and entrepreneurs engaged in constructing the French capital in the period, 1763-1815.