A History of the Barricade - Tapa dura

This is a wondrous book, either to be read at home with a decent map, or carried about sur place through areas no tourists bother with. (Praise for Invention of Paris),Hazan is all business. He trudges through Paris street by street, quoting what Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire or Kafka said about a particular spot, pointing out where barricades were once erected and thieves gathered for drinks. (Praise for Invention of Paris),One of the greatest books about the city anyone has written in decades, towering over a crowded field, passionate and lyrical and sweeping and immediate. (Praise for Invention of Paris),Hazan wants to rescue individual moments from general forgetting and key sites from the bland homogenization of international city development; he is also a passionate left-wing historian seeking to rescue the truth of Paris's revolutionary past. (Praise for Invention of Paris),This book is both a political and aesthetic delight. (Praise for Invention of Paris),Astonishing breadth of reference and incredible detail. (Praise for Invention of Paris) "A History of the Barricade is essential reading for anyone seeking a guided tour of revolutionary Paris...Hazan's book is arguably the most readable, and constitutes a marvelous introduction to the history of revolt." - Daniel Benson, Left History (Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2016)

In the history of European revolutions, the barricade is a glorious emblem, especially the barricades of Paris, which graced all the revolts of the nineteenth century. The barricade was always a makeshift construction, the word derives from barrique or barrel, but it served as an offensive tactic in narrow city streets, enmeshing the forces of repression. Barricades were also a theatrical stage, from where insurgents could harangue soldiers and subvert their allegiance, and their symbolic power remained alive in the historic French protests of May 1968 and the Occupy movements. In a series of concise chapters, Eric Hazan traces the many stages in the barricade's evolution, from the Wars of Religion through the Paris Commune, drawing on observations from contemporary thinkers.