Nights in the Big City: Paris, Berlin, London 1840-1930

by Joachim Schlör

Overview

This elegantly written book describes the changes in the perception and experience of the night in three great European cities: Paris, Berlin and London. The lighting up of the European city by gas and electricity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought about a new relationship with the night, in respect of both work and pleasure. Nights in the Big City explores this new awareness of the city in all its ramifications.

Joachim Schlör has spent his days sifting through countless police and church archives, and first-hand accounts, and his nights exploring the highways and byways of these three great capitals. Illustrated with haunting and evocative photographs by, among others, Brandt and Kertész, and filled with contemporary literary references, Nights in the Big City has already been acclaimed in the German press as a milestone in the cultural history of the city.

"[Schlör] is erudite, and his literary style is alluring."—Architect's Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781861890153
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	07/01/1998
Series:	Topographics
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Joachim Schlör is a cultural historian at the University of Southampton. He is the author of Tel Aviv, also published by Reaktion Books. 

Table of Contents

I. Contradictory Reports from Night in the Big City
II. A Beginning: Big City Nights Around 1840
Digression: In a New Light
III. Night and Security
IV. Night and Morality
V. Night-Walking
VI. And End: Big City Nights Around 1930
References
Bibliography
Index