Customer Reviews

Historic Photos of Paris

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Paris is an ancient city. In fact, Paris is a City with a capital C because of its importance in world history. While America is a young country and photography can only take us back to the mid-19th Century, that is a pretty fair chunk of U.S. history. However, for France and Paris, that is still recent times. Still, the modern world, including two world wars and post-war industrialization, has caused vast changes in the City of Lights that are appreciated more by looking at these pictures.

Rebecca Schall has a master's degree in history, has lived in the Latin Quarter of Paris, and studied at the Sorbonne. She has previously written "Historic Photos of San Francisco" and brings her talents to selecting these 205 photos, providing excellent captions, and short chapter introductions.

The book is divided into six chapters. The first deals with Paris as a Modern Capital from the earliest days of photography to 1890. One of the many interesting photos shows the head of the Statue of Liberty displayed in a park in Paris before it was shipped to the United States.

The Beautiful Age (La Belle Époque) from 1891-to 1914 is covered in the second chapter. Here we see incipient industrialization, the Eiffel Tower as part of the exhibition for which it was built, and Notre Dame from the back and the front as well as the rich, bourgeois, and working classes going about their lives.

The third chapter takes us through the First World War and the Golden Twenties from 1915-1929. While we see the troops, the strain of war, and the straitened lives of citizens, Paris was not devastated. The fourth chapter focuses on the 1930s and the interwar hardships caused by the global economic depression.

In chapter five we see Paris captured by the Nazis during World War II and the lives of its citizens including those who collaborated and those who resisted. The photos of the Americans and other allies coming to liberate Paris demonstrate the joy of the French to be free once more.

The last chapter covers the post-war years through the 1960s and reflects the social revolutions brought about during those years.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

in two words: utterly brilliant. schall's vision of paris is the proverbial madeleine that ushers back memories long forgotten, of walks along the seine in the spring. this book is a masterpiece. i've never seen anything like it.

Beautiful book! I am partial to black and white photos. What a lovely addition to our home library!