Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Lee, Min Kyung, The Tyranny of the Straight Line: Mapping Modern Paris. 208 pp. 2024:3 (Yale U. Pr., US) <714-768>
ISBN 978-0-300-26764-8 hard ¥13,513.- (税込) US$ 65.00 *

A revolutionary study of nineteenth-century Parisian cartography and its role in shaping a modern conception of space Maps are rarely given the same attention as other print media or art forms in urban history. Author Min Kyung Lee shows their rich potential in this lavishly illustrated study, which brings together maps and other archival materials along with drawings and paintings. She works across disciplines to examine mapping practices in the development of nineteenth-century Paris and the transformative role that urban mapping had on the city's modernization. Lee investigates Paris's formation as a modern city, ultimately framing the practice of cartography as a catalyst for the emergence of new spatial and compositional theories. Beginning with an examination of the emblematic urban plan that Napoleon III gave to the prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugene Haussmann, in 1853, Lee explores the significance of the map itself; the means of its production through surveying; the methods of its use and reception by architects, engineers, and administrators; and its place in the visual culture of Paris's modernization. At the heart of this exploration is a focus on orthography in architecture and the new quality of exactitude in modern mapping practices. The precise grid structure of orthographic maps and plans evinced a sense of objectivity, yet it was not without political context and social consequences, as Lee demonstrates throughout.

帝国と現代のタイの間のチェンマイ
Easum, Taylor, Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand: A City in the Colonial Margins. (Asian Cities) 288 pp. 2023:12 (Amsterdam U. Pr., NE) <714-653>
ISBN 978-94-6372-646-7 hard ¥33,358.- (税込) GB￡ 118.00 *

Urban histories tend to be dominated by large, global cities. But what does the history of the modern, colonial era look like from the perspective of smaller cities? By shifting the focus from the metropolis to the secondary city of Chiang Mai, this study provides an alternative narrative of the formation of the modern Thai state that highlights the overlap between European, American, and Siamese interests. Through a detailed analysis of Chiang Mai's urban space, the power dynamics that shaped the city come into focus as an urban-scale manifestation of colonial forces-albeit an incomplete one that allowed sacred space to become a source of conflict that was only resolved in the years before WWII. Today, as the city confronts the challenge of overdevelopment, the legacy of the colonial era, and the opportunity of heritage preservation, this deep, multi-layered history of the power of (and over) urban space is vital.

P.L.ノックス著　ロンドン－25の建物に見る300年の歴史
Knox, Paul L., London: A History of 300 Years in 25 Buildings. 384 pp. 2024:4 (Yale U. Pr., US) <714-1089>
ISBN 978-0-300-26920-8 hard ¥7,276.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

A lively new history of London told through twenty-five buildings, from iconic Georgian townhouses to the Shard A walk along any London street takes you past a wealth of seemingly ordinary buildings: an Edwardian church, modernist postwar council housing, stuccoed Italianate terraces, a Bauhaus-inspired library. But these buildings are not just functional. They are evidence of London's rich and diverse history and have shaped people's experiences, identities, and relationships. In this engaging study, Paul L. Knox traces the history of London from the Georgian era to the present day through twenty-five surviving buildings. Knox explores where people lived and worked, from grand Regency squares to Victorian workshops, and highlights the impact of migration, gentrification, and inequality. We see famous buildings, like Harrods and Abbey Road Studios, and everyday places like Rochelle Street School and Thamesmead. Each historical period has introduced new buildings, and old ones have been repurposed. As Knox shows, it is the living history of these buildings that makes up the vibrant, but exceptionally unequal, city of today.

Loew, Peter Oliver, Gdansk: Portrait of a City. Tr. by J. C. Wood. 272 pp. 2024 (Oxford U. Pr., US) <714-1091>
ISBN 978-0-19-760386-4 hard ¥7,276.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

It was where World War II began on September 1, 1939. Its wartime experience was immortalized in Guenter Grass`s The Tin Drum. Later it attracted worldwide attention as the site where workers` strikes led by Lech Walesa and the ensuing Solidarity movement led to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Proud Hanseatic port, heart of the Baltic Sea trade, twice a "Free City," present-day liberal, cosmopolitan center: Gdansk's story between Germany and Poland is rich and fascinating. As Peter Oliver Loew colorfully shows, Gdansk, also known as Danzig, is incomparable not only because of its recent past but also in how it has so uniquely embodied the tensions of the European continent over the last millennium. Situated geographically and culturally within these tensions, the city has developed a fascinating identity amid frequent conflict and shifting national affiliations. From prehistoric amber workers to early Slavic dukes, the conquest of the Teutonic Order, and submission to the Polish crown, Gdansk's development led to a remarkable flowering. Around 1650, no city between Moscow and Amsterdam was bigger or wealthier. As Poland's decline culminated with the Partitions of Poland, the city ultimately found itself annexed into Prussia. The destruction of 1945 brought an almost entirely new Polish population, who rebuilt the historic center, now part of the reconstituted Polish state. Through each historical rupture, and despite the efforts of distant courts and capitals to rewrite its history, Gdansk has maintained--or sometimes rediscovered--a connection to its own past. Today the port city on the Vistula once again thrives, drawing strength from its diversity and history. Drawing on the latest research of German and Polish historians, Peter Oliver Loew vividly portrays the politics, economy, society, culture, and everyday life of a European city par excellence.

Tribillon, Justinien, The Zone: An Alternative History of Paris. 224 pp. 2024:7 (Verso, UK) <714-1092>
ISBN 978-1-80429-404-8 hard ¥5,368.- (税込) GB￡ 18.99 *

In The Zone, Justinien Tribillon takes the reader on a tour of an eponymous Parisian hinterland. The site of dreams and nightmares, from Van Gogh's paintings to the cinematic violence of La Haine, the Zone, so often misun- derstood, is the key to understanding today's Paris, and even France itself.Originally the site of defensive walls, alongside which mushroomed makeshift housing, allotments, and dancehalls in the nineteenth century, the Zone has performed many functions and been a place of contention for two centuries. Dismantled in the 1920s, the fortifications were first replaced with gardens, stadia and homes. After the war came the Boulevard Peripherique, a ring road promising seamless travel in a futuristic car-centric Paris. With the ring road came new dreams of modernity in reinvented suburbs: new towns, high-rise architecture and social housing built at record speed. Yesterday's Paris made way for tomorrow's banlieue.But the metropolitan dream was never realised. The Zone became a symbol of division: between inner and outer cities; between the bourgeois centre and the working-class immigrant outskirts; between 'us' and 'them'. The Zone, both a physical space and a powerful myth, came to crystallise the social, spatial and ethno-racial differences between Paris and the banlieue.The Zone is a brilliant anatomy of the true heart of Paris. An essential book for urbanists and historians.