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Article: Space and Revolution: Projects for Monuments, Squares, and Public Buildings in France, 1789-1799.
- Article from:
- Canadian Journal of History
- Article date:
- December 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Canadian Journal of 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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James Leith has synthesized years of wide-ranging research in Parisian and departmental collections in this superbly illustrated discussion of architects' proposals for government during the French revolutionary decade. Although he admits that architecture with a "social purpose" can "educate, inspire, and serve" citizens, he defines their work elastically as propaganda, in the neutral sense of an attempt to support a cause." The best-known architects Boullee, Ledoux, and Lequeu were far from rabid revolutionaries, but they offered their services gladly for the goal of regenerating national culture. Their bombastic neo-classical repertoire of colonnades, triumphal arches, ...