Creative Class

The NY Times reviews, Paris: A  Secret History by Alan Hussey (hat tip: Jesse Elliott):

"Paris, Mr. Hussey amply demonstrates, has always been a
city of darkness as well as light … this book is a lengthy reminder that urban history is about artisans,
criminals, conspirators, prostitutes, priests, immigrants, students and
intellectuals no less than emperors, kings and presidents …The constant has been
extremes: poverty and wealth, hunger and plenty, ideas and action,
rebellion and submission, bravery and treachery, beauty and blight…

"Paris became a modern city, first in appearance, as
it was wrenched out of the Middle Ages by Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s
radical mid-19th-century redesign. The Métro, street lighting and
proper drainage arrived in the early 20th century…"

"Paris has always had its serious side, one that flourished
through the ages in exclusive salons and smoky cafes, successively
producing artistic and intellectual movements of weight. Could anywhere
but Paris have spawned Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism? Here too,
though, modern times have brought change. Sartre’s death in 1980, Mr.
Hussey contends, presaged “the ‘death’ of the intellectual” and the
gradual gentrification of bohemian neighborhoods like  Saint Germain des Prés and Montparnasse."

"As a result “the young, the poor, the creative and the dissidents
who previously defined these quartiers” were driven out, albeit not
vanquished. Ever persuaded that the downs of Paris are always followed
by ups, Mr. Hussey insists that  "intellectual Paris is still alive and
well; it has simply changed address.” Intellectuals continue “writing,
painting, publishing and arguing in the traditional manner” in less
pricey parts of the city."

"Now, packed with immigrants from North Africa and beyond, the stage
of this intensely theatrical city is once again changing. “New
lifestyles, new politics, new forms of violence and pleasure are, as I
write, shaping the 21st-century city,” Mr. Hussey concludes. “Paris
still offers all the delicious and exhausting extremes of modern life.”  The full review is here.