The French Review

Reviews 287 Français entre eux dans une sorte d’âme collective. Hauter trouve ce bonheur dans la France profonde, celle des petits villages. C’est là la France chaleureuse, “une France du dimanche, si parfaitement heureuse”(114):“Et si‘la province’réapprenait quelque chose à Paris, le bonheur du moment présent?”(94). Paris est loin, on n’en a pas besoin. Il y a aussi le goût pour les bons repas où “plus aucune différence ne compte” (108), une relation vibrante avec le patrimoine,“façon de tenir l’ancre par rapport au monde moderne” (126), l’enracinement régional, la solidarité familiale, le goût pour un capitalisme“à visage humain”(167), et un attachement aux valeurs d’une République tolérante qui veut savoir accueillir les immigrés. Le tissu social tient encore bon. Le livre de Hauter s’adresse à tous ceux qui enseignent la société française. Randolph College (VA) Françoise Watts Kirkland, Stéphane. Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City. New York: St. Martin’s, 2013. ISBN 978-0-312-62689-1. Pp. 327. $29.99. Kirkland’s primary goal is to set the record straight regarding who should be credited for what is, to his mind,“one of history’s most extravagant examples of urban reinvention” (2). That Haussmann’s energy and tenacity were critical in seeing the projects through is indisputable, but it was Napoléon III himself who “defined the vision for Paris and gathered the political means to implement it” (63); indeed, the transformation of Paris would have been impossible without “the convergence of a whole array of social, cultural, and economic factors and the contributions of many individuals” (2). Evidence abounds that posterity has tended not to give credit where it is due: some of the ideas attributed to Napoléon III, for instance, were actually those of a prefect of the Seine during the July Monarchy; as for Haussmann’s own ideas, few were original—in fact, his aesthetic principles “went little beyond systematically ending avenues with domed structure” (274); he played no part, it turns out, in the conception of the so-called Haussmannian building. Yet the Boulevard Haussmann has kept its name, unlike streets named after other prominent figures of the Second Empire. Kirkland does not hesitate to elaborate on Haussmann’s flaws, describing him as“grossly ignorant”(110),“an impassioned and unabashedly partisan advocate for his own cause” (187) who brazenly bestowed the title of baron upon himself despite his lack of noble blood. Nor does Kirkland have qualms about calling the principles underpinning the modernization program “despotic and socially regressive” (171). The Second Empire’s failure to improve the living conditions of the working class constitutes, for Kirkland, “a great missed opportunity” (171); the financial and real estate dealings were “questionable” if not “downright reprehensible”; and the moral depravity of certain players was “appalling” (291). To be sure, Napoléon III’s regime could justifiably boast of myriad changes which most would consider improvements: an additional 85 miles of streets, 420 miles of sidewalks, 46,000 trees, 17,000 gas streetlamps, not to mention 700,000 new inhabitants in just 20 years; but Kirkland never loses sight of the “tremendous human and cultural cost” of the enterprise (2). He is an accomplished storyteller who interweaves, seemingly effortlessly, information on architecture, urban planning, politics, history, economics, and the arts, bringing to life an extensive cast of colorful characters from various walks of life. Readers will relish his animated accounts of lavish celebrations hosted by Napoléon III (the emperor’s inclination“to a sort of austerity”notwithstanding [105]); Queen Victoria’s visit to Paris; the quest for safer drinking water (before Second Empire advances, water was obtained directly from the Seine and left to sit for a day so the solids could settle); the expropriation of an astonishing 20% of the city’s population so that the grands travaux could be realized. Paris Reborn is a well-substantiated, measured treatment of a key period in French history, noteworthy above all for its ability to help us visualize the metamorphosis of the“old...