Overview

The sights, sounds and smells of life on the streets and in the houses of 18th-century Paris rise from the pages of this anecdotal chronicle of a perpetually alluring city during one hundred years of extraordinary social and cultural change. A general history as well as a synthesis of new research, this text combines vivid portraits of individual lives, accounts of social trends and analyses of significant events as it explores the evolution of Parisian society during the 18th century and reveals the city's pivotal role in shaping the French Revolution. David Garrioch rewrites the origins of the Parisian Revolution as the story of an urban metamorphosis stimulated by factors such as the spread of the Enlightenment, the growth of consumerism and new ideas about urban space. With an eye on the broad social trends emerging during the century, he focuses his narrative on such humble but fascinating aspects of daily life as traffic congestion, a controversy over the renumbering of houses and the ever-present dilemma of where to bury the dead. He describes changes in family life and women's social status, in religion, in the literary imagination and in politics. Paris played a significan

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9780520232532

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Reviews

"""An unusually compelling work of scholarly synthesis: a history of a city of revolution in a revolutionary century. Garrioch claims that until 1750 Paris remained a city characterized by a powerful sense of heirarchy. From the mid-century on, however, and with gathering speed, economic, demographic, political, and social change swept the city. Having produced an extremely engaging account of the old corporate society, Garrioch turns to the forces that relentlessly undermined it.""-Jack Talbott, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara"

An unusually compelling work of scholarly synthesis: a history of a city of revolution in a revolutionary century. Garrioch claims that until 1750 Paris remained a city characterized by a powerful sense of heirarchy. From the mid-century on, however, and with gathering speed, economic, demographic, political, and social change swept the city. Having produced an extremely engaging account of the old corporate society, Garrioch turns to the forces that relentlessly undermined it. -Jack Talbott, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

Author Information

David Garrioch is Associate Professor of History at Monash University, Australia, and author of The Formation of the Parisian Bourgeoisie, 1690-1830 (1996) and Neighborhood and Community in Paris, 1740-1790 (1986).

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