Rebel Cities (Hardcover)

X. Mike Rapport

ISBN 10: 1408702916 / ISBN 13: 9781408702918

Published by Little, Brown Book Group, London, 2017

About this Item

Hardcover. London, Paris and New York in the eighteenth century, as today, were places where political authority, commerce and money, art and intellectual life intersected. They straddled an Atlantic world where ships powered by nothing more than wind, currents and human muscle criss-crossed the sea, carrying with them goods, ideas and above all people: men and women, bewigged aristocrats and lawyers, rough-handed craftworkers, quill-wielding bluestockings and doughty fishwives. But the cities were also home to dangerous criminals, corrupt politicians - and slaves. Rebel Cities explores the stormy debate about the nature of cities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: were they places of enlightenment, sparkling wells of progress and civilisation, or were they dens of vice, degeneracy and disorder? Against a backdrop of accelerating urban expansion and revolution in both Europe and North America, revolutionary burghers of these extraordinary cities expended ink, paint, breath and, sometimes, blood in their struggle to understand, control and master the urban world. Drawing on hundreds of letters, travelogues and eye-witness accounts, Mike Rapport vividly evokes the sights, sounds and smells of these cities, masterfully weaving their history with the politics of revolution. When New Yorkers and Parisians experienced their revolution, when their cities went to war, and when Londoners engaged in political protest, they underwent the whole torrent and exhilaration of human emotions. Determining the character of the cities through their inhabitants, as well as their architecture, topography and the events that shaped them, this magnificent book evokes what it was like for all parts of society to live in London, Paris and New York in one of the most transformative periods in the history of civilisation. A brilliant historical narrative of London, Paris and New York in the Age of Revolution, just as they were transforming into the great global cities we know them to be today. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781408702918

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rebel Cities (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group, London
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1408702916
• ISBN 13: 9781408702918
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This history compares events in Paris, New York and London from 1765 to 1795, when the first two were convulsed by revolution, and the third came close. Drawing on archives, letters and travelogues, the book evokes a world in which aristocrats, lawyers, artisans and society hostesses passionately debated the issues of liberty, justice and the social order, and assesses how those momentous years have shaped the political and physical fabric of all three cities to this day.

About the Author

Mike Rapport is a Reader in modern European history at the University of Glasgow and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of several books, including 1848: Year of Revolution. He lives in Stirling, Scotland.