The art critic for the Washington Post, Sebastian Smee, focuses on the 'année terrible' of 1870-71 in Paris and the explosive mix of war, revolution and artistic brilliance which generated the first Impressionist salon in 1874. This is a gripping story of violence and suffering, love and artistic brilliance.
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans-then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris. As renowned art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born-in response to violence, civil war, and political intrigue.
In stirring and exceptionally vivid prose, Smee tells the story of those dramatic days…
Mike Rapport demonstrates historical writing at its best: a deep erudition across the politics, culture and society of a fascinating period, conveyed with an engaging style. These were decades of violence and civil conflict, brilliance and innovation, family fortunes and raw poverty. It was not the Belle Époque for everybody!
Paris in the Belle Epoque is remembered as a golden age of cultural flourishing and political progress. The time between the revolutionary 1870s and the outbreak of war in 1914 saw the modern French capital take shape: by day Parisians could admire the rising Eiffel Tower and Sacre-Coeur Basilica, while at night they roamed the Bohemian world of the Moulin Rouge.
But as Mike Rapport reveals in this authoritative and beautifully written new history beneath its elegant veneer Paris was at war with itself. The Belle Epoque was also an era of social and religious unrest, women's emancipation and violent…
Roman Krznaric, looks at the lessons of the past in an innovative way, identifying inspiring examples of community action across the past millennium as options for tackling the wicked problems of our own times. This is fast-paced and thought-provoking analysis from a scholar determined not to retreat in the face of our contemporary crises.
'Brimming with ideas and insights, this is a welcome, important and clear-eyed view of how understanding the past can help us better prepare for the future' - Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Earth Transformed and The Silk Roads
'Enlightening and thrilling. History for Tomorrow tells us who we are and who we could be' - George Monbiot, bestselling author of Regenesis and How Did We Get Into This Mess?
What can humankind's rich history of radical revolts teach us about the power of disobedience to tackle the climate crisis? What inspiration could we take from eighteenth century Japan to…
The French countryside is as beloved by the many millions of tourists who visit it each year as it is of French people themselves. But it has not always looked like it does today. An Environmental History of France instead presents the countryside in which people live and work and through which they travel as a human creation across 250 years of economic and cultural change, war and revolution. It is a book about the 'making' of the French landscape and an engrossing story linking human geography, history, agriculture and culture.
