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

Michel Carmona (Author), Patrick Camiller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2002

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 Haussmann’s early years and his entry into civic life as an administrator; the problems of urban existence faced by the city of Paris; Haussmann’s reign as the designated chief of Napoléon III’s grand scheme for the renewal of the French capital; and the so-called ”Haussmannization” of Paris. Some observers today still see Haussmann’s 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The notorious city planner for Napol on III, and prefect of the Seine region, Baron Georges-Eug ne Haussmann turned Paris from a still medieval urban area to a triumphant imperial city Haussmann makes New York's Robert Moses look timid by comparison. Haussmann believed in cutting across straight lines for wide boulevards, no matter what was standing in the way. He drove tens of thousands of poor residents out of the city's center and destroyed many ancient sites. Yet Paris did not follow obediently according to Haussmann's plans, and press campaigns, Carmona shows, finally made the public reject his work. In four main sections, Carmona, a professor of urban studies at the Universit Paris IV-Sorbonne (who has written untranslated biographies of historical figures like Queen Marie de M dicis and Cardinal Richelieu), provides a reliable survey in academic prose of the rich source material available about Haussmann. In a utilitarian rather than elegant translation, this new book can get lost in some fairly tedious detail, but it hits all the necessary marks and then some, showing, for instance, that for all his imperial obsessions, even Napoleon III was not enamored of the giant radiating grands boulevards that make Paris so terrifying for pedestrians today. (June) Forecast: This book's judiciously chosen bibliography (of titles mostly in French) is sure to aid further research, although it omits the main English-language study currently in print, David Jordan's Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann (Free Press), an informative political bio. Further English-language studies of Haussmann date back 30 years to David H. Pinckney's Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris and Anthony Sutcliffe's The Autumn of Central Paris.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Comprehensive, readable, and meticulously researched, this is a sympathetic yet balanced biography of the architect of modern Paris. Carmona (Sorbonne) tells the story of Haussmann's life and career through the prism of 19th-century European political, social, and economic history. He explains how the personal and political collaboration between Haussmann, who was the prefect of the Seine department, and Emperor Napoleon III facilitated the transformation of Paris from a medieval to a modern city. He explains in sharp analytical detail the vision and principles that guided both men, an analysis that will make this book of interest to students of urban architecture and planning as well as to French historians. Carmona is also frank in explaining why his subject remains so controversial. Autocratic and at times imprudent, he was seen by contemporary opponents as insensitive both to the "deportation of the poor" and to the class segregation that resulted from his ambitious grand plans. Nonetheless, Carmona concludes that his "authoritarian, pragmatic, and efficient" personality was necessary in planning and executing such a visionary project of urban transformation. Recommended for academic libraries and specialized collections. [For a view of Haussmann's role in modern Paris that is more about the city than the man, see David P. Jordan's Transforming Paris. Ed.] Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., N.
- Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee; 1st English Translation Edition edition (March 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156663427X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566634274
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a gamble and love it, May 25, 2002

By 

L. P. D. Heinen (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris (Hardcover)

Recently, I was looking for a book about Georges-Eugene Haussmann because of a long time interest in Paris, and when you come to speak of how it developed, that is a name that you just cannot ignore. The book hasn't been out for so long, so I took a gamble in buying it (no reviews were posted pretty much anywhere).
The first part of the book is about Haussmann and how he climbed up the ladder in the civil service (without losing sight of any of the cultural or historical background), when the following parts of the book focus more on Haussmann's time in Paris and the changes he made there (what it should be about). The only comment you can give on this part is that the maps in the back of the book are not enough to understand the bigger picture. I don't know whether this should be included in the book or whether the writer should have recommended the reader to buy a detailed plan de paris. He didn't say that so that's the star that's missing, but short of that, I think it's the perfect book you can buy about Baron Haussmann, his plans to change Paris and the cultural circumstances surrounding it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine balance between biography and history, June 3, 2002

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris (Hardcover)

Baron Haussman was the famous 'architect' of modern Paris and has been little covered in history: enter Carmona, a biographer who sets the architect's life against the backdrop of 19th-century European society and history. A fine balance between biography and history is created in a survey of Haussmann's involvement in civic life as an administrator, and his influence on Paris politics and structures.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Depth, Precise, Fascinating, March 22, 2008

By 

But Seriously (New York NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris (Hardcover)

In a volatile era and area - 19th century Europe - surviving 17 years in one of the highest ranks of government was quite an achievement. This detailed and perceptive reading of the life of Georges-Eugene Haussmann - and the part of it lived during the reign of Louis Napoleon - is a terrific achievement and a fascinating trip. If, of course, you're into Paris or city planning, history or intrigue - preferably all of those.

By the way, Louis Napoleon wasn't run out of town - he was out of town as a prisoner of war when his regime fell (it was his wife Eugenie who fled in fear. But none of the imperial family were harmed in the rise of the Third Republic. Not directly, anyway.)

Haussmann is blamed by some for removing "vieille Paris" - much of it clums and breeding ground for disease, but here we get a clear case for the side that says a) the "grand traveaux" were already Louis Napoleon's dream when he became President, and his goal when he became Emperor, and b) without them, and without Haussman's own contributions to the aesthetic, as well as the innovation, force and dedication he put behind the development of water supplies and sewers, not to mention the bois and parks, Paris would not have become the leading city of the 19th century, or indeed the loved and beloved place we know her to be today.

Vive Haussmann ~ flawed but formidable, one of history's greatest administrators.