Barricades and Boulevards: Material transformations of Paris, 1795-1871

Carl Douglas

Barricades and Boulevards: Material transformations of Paris, 1795-1871

“Destroying and constructing are equal in importance, and we must have souls for the one and the other”.1

Paul Valéry

Large-scale urban violence is a tumultuous, messy and distressing affair. Materials and patterns of everyday life are blown apart. Amongst death and disarray, important spatial operations that take place in urban conflict are easily overlooked. However, the construction of street barricades and boulevards in Paris between 1795 and 1871 transformed the city. The struggles over these transformations can be described as both the disruption and the policing of what Rancière calls the “distribution of the sensible”. 2

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