Main entry:

Rearick, Charles, 1942-

Title & Author:

Paris dreams, Paris memories : the city and its mystique / Charles Rearick.

Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, ©2011.

Description:

xv, 278 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-272) and index.
Paris : praised, modernized, remembered, staged, and loved : nineteenth-century foundations -- The memory of a certain "belle-epoque" (1914-c.1960) : or how the turn-of-the-century lived on beyond its time -- Postwar modernizing and the resistance of memory (1945-c.1980) -- New varieties of a "nouveau Paris" (1974-2008) -- Paris in comparison -- Contemporary Paris : images, spirit, soul, and sites -- Conclusion : to know Paris.

Summary:

The author argues that Paris is best understood as several cities in one, each with its own history and imagination. Paris has long been at once a cosmopolitan City of Light and of modernity, a patchwork of time-resistant villages, a treasured heirloom, a hell for the disinherited, and a legendary pleasure dome. Each of these has played a part in making the city of our time. Focusing on the last century and a half, the book makes contemporary Paris understandable. It tells of renewal projects transforming neighborhoods and of counter-measures taken to perpetuate the city's historic character and soul. It provides a historically grounded look at the troubled suburbs, barren of monuments and memories, a dumping ground for unwanted industries and people. Further, it tests long-standing characterizations of Paris's uniqueness through comparisons with such rivals as London and Berlin. The book shows that, in myriad forms, contemporary Paris gives life to visions of the city long etched in Parisian imaginations.

Resources:
Book review (H-Net)

ISBN:

9780804770927 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0804770921 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780804770934 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
080477093X (pbk. ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Collective memory France Paris.
Mémoire collective France Paris.
Collective memory.
Public opinion.
Kollektivt minne Frankrike Paris.
Allmänna opinionen Frankrike Paris.
Paris (France) Public opinion.
Paris (France) History 19th century.
Paris (France) History 20th century.
Paris historia 1800-talet.
Paris historia 1900-talet.
Paris (France) Histoire 19e siècle.
Paris (France) Histoire 20e siècle.
France Paris.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 273152
Call No.: BIB 206622
Status: Available