French Cities in the Nineteenth Century 1981

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1981, French Cities in the Nineteenth Century analyses large-scale processes of social change and how this affected the growth of towns and cities of nineteenth century France. The book looks at how this change affected the politics life of France during this period, and looks in depth at how the city was organised and how it worked. Urbanization created new uses of space, and new concerns for the people that lived among them. The book looks at social change as a collective experience for the people of France and how this transformed the societies in which they lived.