Examining the social and political history of workers and entrepreneurs engaged in constructing the French capital from 1763-1815, this book argues that Paris construction was a core sector in which 'archaic' and 'innovative' practices were symbiotically used by guilds, the state, and enterprises to launch the commercial revolution in France.

Auteur
ALLAN POTOFSKY is Professor at the Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7. He was awarded a PhD in History from Columbia University, New York, and previously was Associate Professor at the Université Paris-8 (Saint-Denis). His research interests include the history of Paris, the French Revolution, eighteenth-century Atlantic history, France in America, and comparative urban history, 1750-1850. He lives in the northeast Parisian quarter of Belleville.

Contenu
List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Parisian Construction at the End of the Ancien Régime: The Building Trades, The Pre-Industrial Market, And The Guild Debate, 1750-1789 The Revolution and Construction Guilds, 1789-1793 Projecting the Revolution on the Parisian Work Site, 1789-1793 The Building Trades in the Terror and Thermidor, 1793-1795 Reconciling Commerce and Revolution, 1795-1805 Constraining Capital, Containing Labor: State Urban Planning In Paris, 1802-1815 Conclusion and Epilogue Appendix Notes and Bibliography