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Article: Paris: Capital of the World.(Reviews)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- March 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Paris: Capital of the World. By Patrice Higonnet (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. 493 pp. $35.00).
I think it was James M. Barrie, Peter Pan's creator, who defended George Bernard Shaw against a critic who accused him of being scattered-brained: 'At least he has brains to scatter.' The quip may serve as a commentary on Patrice Higonnet's lavishly produced, erudite, witty, and smart book.
All books about Paris are necessarily idiosyncratic. The city is so big, so diverse, its history so long, dense, and rich, the literature on Paris so daunting, that one must pick and choose carefully. Higonnet's Paris is a cultural phenomenon of the nineteenth ...