The Streets of Europe : The Sights, Sounds, and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities

"This is a sensory history and a sensual story told from street level . . . a clear and powerful account of the transformation of street life in Europe." —Leora Auslander, author of Taste and Power Merchants' shouts, jostling strangers, aromas of fresh fish and flowers, plodding horses, and friendly chatter long filled the narrow, crowded streets of the European city. As they developed over many centuries, these spaces of commerce, communion, and commuting framed daily life. At its heyday in the 1800s, the European street was the place where social worlds connected and collided. Brian Ladd recounts a rich social and cultural history of the European city street, tracing its transformation from a lively scene of trade and crowds into a thoroughfare for high-speed transportation. Looking closely at four major cities—London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—Ladd uncovers both the joys and the struggles of a past world. The story takes us up to the twentieth century, when the life of the street was transformed as wealthier citizens withdrew from the crowds to seek refuge in suburbs and automobiles. As demographics and technologies changed, so did the structure of cities and the design of streets, significantly shifting our relationships to them. In today's world of high-speed transportation and impersonal marketplaces, Ladd leads us to consider how we might draw on our history to once again build streets that encourage us to linger. By unearthing the vivid descriptions recorded by amused and outraged contemporaries, Ladd reveals the changing nature of city life, showing why streets matter and how they can contribute to public life. "[A] dazzlingly kaleidoscopic overview of city life, city living, and city dying." —Judith Flanders, author of The Invention of Murder A multi-sensory urban history of Europe's bustling streets. Merchants'shouts, jostling strangers, aromas of fresh fish and flowers, plodding horses, and friendly chatter long filled the narrow, crowded streets of the European city. As they developed over many centuries, these spaces of commerce, communion, and commuting framed daily life. At its heyday in the 1800s, the European street was the place where social worlds connected and collided. Brian Ladd recounts a rich social and cultural history of the European city street, tracing its transformation from a lively scene of trade and crowds into a thoroughfare for high-speed transportation. Looking closely at four major cities—London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—Ladd uncovers both the joys and the struggles of a past world. The story takes us up to the twentieth century, when the life of the street was transformed as wealthier citizens withdrew from the crowds to seek refuge in suburbs and automobiles. As demographics and technologies changed, so did the structure of cities and the design of streets, significantly shifting our relationships to them. In today's world of high-speed transportation and impersonal marketplaces, Ladd leads us to consider how we might draw on our history to once again build streets that encourage us to linger. ​ By unearthing the vivid descriptions recorded by amused and outraged contemporaries, Ladd reveals the changing nature of city life, showing why streets matter and how they can contribute to public life. Proporcionado por el ed.: "Street Life tells the history of the city street as a vanished world that many people yearn for but that few understand in its complexity. Ladd's journey centers on four major cities: London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. He focuses on the eighteenth and nineteenth and his story of the rich culture of the street ends with the arrival of the automobile - the street increasingly became equated not with commerce or entertainment or assembly but with rapid transportation. As Ladd ably weaves architectural and social history he includes sights, smells, and sounds-chapters on transportation and sanitation provide the less dazzling side of these sensations. Street performers, urban activity, street commerce, and public order are all part of the vivid history. In a conclusion, Ladd ponders the move off the streets, before and after 1900 and how our thinking about streets and cities has changed and how it might change more" "Street Life tells the history of the city street as a vanished world that many people yearn for but that few understand in its complexity. Ladd's journey centers on four major cities: London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. He focuses on the eighteenth and nineteenth and his story of the rich culture of the street ends with the arrival of the automobile - the street increasingly became equated not with commerce or entertainment or assembly but with rapid transportation. As Ladd ably weaves architectural and social history he includes sights, smells, and sounds-chapters on transportation and sanitation provide the less dazzling side of these sensations. Street performers, urban activity, street commerce, and public order are all part of the vivid history. In a conclusion, Ladd ponders the move off the streets, before and after 1900 and how our thinking about streets and cities has changed and how it might change more"-- Provided by publisher Introduction: The form and use of city streets -- Streets in history -- Wheeling and dealing: the street economy -- Strolling, mingling, and lingering: social life on the street -- Out of the muck: the sanitary city -- Transportation: the acceleration of the street -- Public order and public space: control and design -- Conclusion: looking down on the street