The very name applied to the period between about 1880 and World War I in Paris indicates retrospective nostalgia. Mike Rapport, who teaches history at Stirling in Scotland, makes it clear that when it was in progress it wasn't so very 'belle.' In so doing, he serves up constant resemblances between then and now, which are only echoes in the text but are made explicit in the conclusion.

The gulf between rich and poor was wide and growing, and the expansion of a middle class who shopped at the new department stores couldn't paper over the struggles of the starving. The focus on specific places in the city loosens gradually as the story progresses, and the maps are maybe a little too small to help people who don't have the map of the city memorized. The most instructive part of the book consists of the sections focusing on Emile Zola, Alfred Dreyfus, the explosion of newspapers on either side of the miscarriage of justice that was the Dreyfus "affair," and the dangers caused by mobs of right wing antisemites who were ginned up by the anti-Dreyfus press to ensure that the doing of real justice was impeded at every turn.

Does that sound anything like today? It should. And it's frightening to consider the fact of what France had to go through to put that period behind it (to the extent that it is). Not a great prognosis for the US or England, to consider that our voices of reason are going to have to be drowned in the blood of the innocent before we can come out the other side even to a small degree Then people formed mobs screaming hatred of Jews, now it's Muslims, migrants, black people, transgender people...

On the way to that sobering series of chapters, we find out about Sacre-Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, the Metro, and other landmarks created during the not-so-Belle Epoque in Paris. Rapport's focus on the people he names at the beginning is a little elastic, and the poet from Vietnam hardly comes into the story at all, so including him seems like a good idea that didn't really work in practice.

On the whole, though, for anyone interested in Paris or the history of Europe will find a lot of interest in this book, as well as a cure for nostalgia.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advance galley of this book.

It's definitely a well-written and well put together book on Paris during the Bell Epoque era. I think that even though the marketing and the cover for it are trying to capture a lay audience or non-experts on the subject, the book reads with an academic tone and scope, which made it difficult for me to navigate. I was hoping for something with a better readability scale. For readers who are very invested or interested in this particular part of Paris's history and are looking for a work in English and not in French, this is probably going to be a helpful guide and good place to find further research. There are also some nice maps in here that have cool detail.

City of Light, City of Shadows by Mike Rapport is quite simply fascinating. I was actually expecting more of an analysis of how the social unrest of the time affected the art moveents of Paris, but instead, this book is far, far more focussed on the history than Art and Photography.

However, this did not dissuade me from reading, as, although my focus was the art and photography aspect, I am an ardent consumer of historical accounts, especially when they are as beautifully written as this one. The Belle Epoque is translated to the "Beautiful Era" and stood at the juncture between the Napoleonic wars and WWI. Indeed, Rapport describes the rise in the socialist movement that was actively trying to prevent WWI and which resulted in the assassination of one of their prominent members (Jean Jaures) in 1914.

The beauty of Art Nouveau blossomed, Renoir painted the spirit of PAris and Picasso created new perspectives in Art, new styles of posters, printing and the beginings of film, Parisienne style was the world leader, setting trends that were copied relentlessly and strived for across the channel

Rapport describes a blossom that grew out of two terrible, desolate, devastating times in history , but brings Paris to life as a living breathing microcosm, more than a city of people, as a being; enduring and changing through time, growing, manifesting and flourishing, as a living, breathing entity in and of itself.

This book is incredibly interesting and certainly a good book for any lover of history, especially this little-reported, but very important era. Naturally it would be overshadowed by WWi and the Napoleonic war and yes, they have every right to take precedence, but I believe that it is equally important to remember those times that gave people the tenacity and hope to endure, and this was certainly one of those times.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this was not quite what I was expectng, but so very glad I had the opportunity to read such a fascinating book

Thank you very very much to Netgalley, Basic Books and Mike Rapport for this excellent ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own