The Arcades Project - Operi

No. 198
{The merit of this little volume lies in the evocation of the different districts
of a great city. It is not their picturesque aspect that concerns the author,
nor anything exterior. It is, rather, the unique character conferred on each
of these quartiers by the social strata informing them and the occupations
of the residents.}
If the speculative phenomena attendant on "Haussmannization" remain for
the most part in shadow, the tactical interests of the reform-interests
which Napoleon III willingly concealed behind his impelal ambitions­
emerge more clearly. A contemporary apology for Haussmann's project is
comparatively frank on this subject. It commends the new streets for "not
subserving the customary tactics of the local insurrections." Before this,
Paris had already been paved in wood so as to deprive the revolution of its
building material. As Karl Gutzkow writes in his Pariser Bri'!ftn, "no one
builds barricades out of blocks of wood." To appreciate what is meant by
this, recall that in 1830 some six thousand barricades were counted in the
city.
Louis Philippe already had the nickname "Roi-Maon" . With
Napoleon III, the mercantile, hygienic, and military forces bent on trans­
forming tl,e city's image were allied with the aspiration to immortalize
in monuments of lasting peace. In Haussmann he found the
energy necessary for implementation of the plan. Putting the energy to
work was, of course, not easy for him.
A careerist in the service of a usurper
III. Haussmarm and Napoleon III
II. Strategic embellishment
III. Fantastic accounts of Haussmann
Strategic embellishment
The technique ofbamcade fighting
The strategic lines
The theoretic base
Jurisprudence
'The spectacles; aesthetics
Destluctive-Pacific Imperialism
or
lThe Haussmannization of Paris II
Haussmann's means
The careerist serving the usurper
Napoleon as pretender to the throne
TIle coup d \ etat and Haussmarm
Intran
The police and Orsini's assassination
attempt
Significance of substructions
The railroads
The world exhibitions
The new city planning
Haussmalill and the parlimnent
Haussmann's later career