MAIS ABSOLUMENT!
Noticing what's skipped tells a different story and leads to questions that we do not think to ask.
Uncredited photos are mine.
The Saint-Denis gate, which most visitors have never heard of and whose meaning few Parisians recall, announces a Sun King victory whose disastrous ripples remain and a vibrant neighborhood where 72 languages are said to be spoken.
This guidebook stresses observation and the effects of underlying economies on events usually seen as political, religious or military. My credentials: a French-American who has lived in Paris for decades, a college professor of history in the U.S. and a tour guide in Paris (as a former member of the Office of Tourism I know its priorities).
That method leads to revising what is usually said of the city. For its wider relevance, please click.
There's space for comments at the end of each page: political discussions welcome.
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TRAILERS TO PART I
PARIS NOW:
As brands dominate the center,
creativity moves to the outskirts
There relatively affordable rents attract innovation in all domains, as shown here, here and here. But that inventivity is known largely to locals.
Immigrant creativity is even more ignored. Take La Goutte d'Or, a largely African neighborhood where a unique art bubbles. There “looks” are compositions that communicate:
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| On rue Doudeauville, "Main Street" |
That energy explains the barbershops and beauty salons, the stores selling the distinctive prints associated with Africa, wigs, beauty products etc., and the young tailors busy behind sewing machines in workshops one sees from the street.
- Barbershop signs propose innumerable styles. Their origin: African market signs.
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Sign at the Abidjan's Treichville market, 1973. Notice the "Kennedy" cut.
- Soccer players adopted them to be identified on television during the 2014 World Cup. Boys and young men took them up world wide.
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Mathieu Debuchy and Bakari Sagna, Équipe de France / zoom* |
*Clicking on "zoom" leads to the original image and information about it.
- Black barbershops are where styles in cuts, beards and moustaches begin. Other neighborhoods' much rarer hairdressers timidly follow.
Bouno coiffure, 51 rue de la Goutte d'Or, 18th
"Art must reveal a philosophy. Otherwise it is just decoration," an art critic told me. The looks express an upbeat affirmation of individual uniqueness, and the signs a homogenous, supportive community.
Traditional shops reflect it. How they present their wares does not matter, since clients come because they know the vendors and may stay to keep them company. Good humor is omnipresent — for an unexpected example of kindness, please click.
People support each other in a world that is often harsh.
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THE PAST:
A city of insurrection
Many people think the figures in an iconic painting are storming the Bastille...
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La Liberté guide le people by Eugene Delacroix, 1830-1831 (cropped) / zoom
But the Revolution of 1830 inspired the work. Its three days of combat finished what the French Revolution began: letting capitalism take wing by eliminating nobles' power. What used to be accepted is now almost never said.
- That transformation led to revolts between 1830 and 1871 that were endemic but, unless one is familiar with Les Misérables, are largely forgotten: For an account, please click.
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Combat à la porte Saint-Denis, anonymous lithograph, 1848 / zoom |
- The last and most tragic upheaval led to the Paris Commune, when inexperienced young leaders whom humble people backed ran City Hall from March to May 1871.
Proclamation de la Commune le 26 mars 1871, anonymous engraving / zoom
In spite of war with the national government, a siege and the flight of seasoned administrators, they sketched out a vision for a genuinely democratic society and kept the continent's largest city running (population a million and a half).
"They failed because of their great decency," Marx said of these idealists. They succored widows whose men had died fighting them, their nurses tended the wounded on both sides and they left the gold left by the fleeing government untouched.
The upheaval itself was due to France's defeat by Prussia. When Bismarck freed 100,000 P.O.W.s to strengthen the reactionary French government, it repressed La Commune in a way that foreshadows genocides.
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| Un Peloton d'exécution [firing squad] versaillais pendant la Semaine sanglante by V. Sarday, "Friends of the Paris Commune" / zoom ("Versaillais:" The government had fled to Versailles.) |
The painting made a generation later is based on illustrations of the time and records of adversaries' grudging respect.
Commemorative parade, 2021
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TRAILER TO PART II:
AN ECONOMIC, CROSS-CULTURAL
APPROACH TO THE PAST
One example: Ostentation erases investible profits to maintain the status quo.
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A Royal Army on the March,16th-century tapestry (detail), Renaissance Museum |
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History from Fresh Perspectives says more.
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This is a "blook,"a book that makes its points briskly through headlines and pictures.
It includes drawings by Harald Wolff. Like the vast majority of Parisian artists he is foreign (German), and lives not in the places associated with them (Saint-Germain, Montmartre, Montparnasse) but in a plebeian suburb (Montreuil) where rents are lower. So he is part of the reality that these pages describe.
The index, under the menu on the right, gives immediate access to the main ideas.
Contents let is more detailed.
Epilogues suggests their wider relevance.
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Next,
