Review: Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870

Book Review| June 01 2024 Review: Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870 Esther da Costa Meyer. Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2022, 416 pp., 60 color and 115 b/w illus. $53 (cloth), ISBN 9780691162805 Sean Weiss Sean Weiss City College of New York Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2024) 83 (2): 240–242. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2024.83.2.240 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Sean Weiss; Review: Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 June 2024; 83 (2): 240–242. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2024.83.2.240 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search Esther da Costa Meyer's beautifully written, richly illustrated, and weighty tome, Dividing Paris: Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870, delivers an authoritative history of Second Empire Paris. In 1995, da Costa Meyer published the definitive monograph of Italian futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia. In the same year, her brilliant essay on the historical connections among women, agoraphobia, and urban space also appeared, revealing her insight into the modern urban condition.1 In Dividing Paris, da Costa Meyer demonstrates this acumen on a grander scale. Across seven chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion, she chronicles the most prominent phase of Paris's modern urban development. In the Second Empire, the tightly centralized government, supported by private capital, dramatically reshaped Paris into a modern industrial capital to accommodate a surging population, tackle steady outbreaks of cholera, and suppress the threat of revolution. With da Costa Meyer's stated focus on infrastructural projects and... You do not currently have access to this content.