The Zone: An Alternative History of Paris

by Justinien Tribillon

A history of modern Paris, looking at how the construction of the city post WWII shaped the social fabric of the cityIf you want to understand Paris today you need to go beyond the palaces and boulevards and discover the Perif. In The Zone, Justinien Tribillon takes the reader on a walk around the Parisian edgelands. He shows how the city should be read from the outside inwards.How can the history of a ring road tell the history of a city? Post-war Paris is the story of the Periferique, constructed in the aftermath of Word War Two to modernise the city. The ring road started as a dream of a new modern metropolis but soon became a dividing between inner and outer cities; between the bourgeois centre and the immigrant outskirts. Here the dividing line of the city, and of the nation, soon found their form within the liminal banlieu.The Zone is a subject for urbanists everywhere who are interested in social housing, social engineering, the consequences of immigration and riots. This book is The City of Quartz for Parisians. The site of dreams as well as the realities of La Haine, the Zone so often misunderstood, is show to be the best way to understand modern Paris, and even France itself.

Genres: France, History, Urbanism, Nonfiction, Cities

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2024

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am enjoying the gradual rejection by English-language left-wing books on Paris of the 'nothing to see here' view of the 8/10ths of Greater Paris that isn't "Paris", and this is a good example: a fast-paced short history of the specific area where one rubs against the other, with lots of pics and anecdotes and some hair-raising stories. Slightly overwritten in a very Writer's First Book way, but also with a very welcome nuance, capable of recognising both how eg mass social housing was linked up with some very dubious ideas and also how it made thousands of people's lives better.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 ★

Paris: the city of love, the city of light, the city of proper people.

Tribillon takes you on trips around Paris to discuss how the construction of Paris keeps the favored, proper elite in Paris intramuros (people who are, “well-bred, well-dressed, white, probably Christian, male and straight, with savings accounts”) and the social “other” in the banlieues (varies through time, but always more working-class than not, eg Romanis, Jews, Algerians, communists, etc). They’re separated by the Zone, which is currently quite a physical barrier: le boulevard périphérique.

Chapter 1: Creating the Zone to separate the bourgeois from the proletariat (or, how to keep the pesky poor people out)
Chapter 2: Planting trees will address all of the peoples’ concerns (or, introducing more urban green space is easier than implementing a long-term strategy to address the systemic issues in urban planning)
Chapter 3: Reinforcing the Zone to keep the socialists and commies out of Paris intramuros (or, Paris’s “proper” citizens shouldn’t have to deal the realities of social inequality)
Chapter 4: Technocracy working for the elite (or, technocratic management does not a fair design make)
Chapter 5: Imperial boomeranging to keep Paris “proper” (or, how the colonizers improve policing techniques)

[Mick de Waart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paris is xenophobic, and the ring around ‘Paris proper’ has been retrofitted throughout its history to keep ‘the other’ out. That’s the idea behind the book.

It’s a good idea, but I didn’t like the execution. For one, the book really needed a few good maps to show which areas the author was specifically writing about, because it was hard to follow and unclear if his arguments actually made sense without seeing specifically how things he writes about were implemented spatially. Also, the style of writing felt overly inciting to me and not factual enough. Many arguments were made without proper substantiation, and other arguments were so obvious that they didn’t need an entire book written around them.

I was disappointed. I thought it was an interesting theme to explore in a book, but I felt the author missed the mark and was not sufficiently equipped to write a book about this theme.

[Dustyloup · Rating 4 out of 5]

FR 👇This was not an easy read.* In some ways it was obviously a rewrite of the author's dissertation, but it was still a fascinating look at the margins of Paris: physical, political, racial, architectural, etc.
If you cling to the illusion that Paris/France is beautiful & wonderful, you'll want to give this a miss.

*If you're looking for something more accessible that focuses on North African migration, housing, and employment, I'd recommend Les Mohamed by Jérôme Ruillier (not sure if it's been translated to English).

FR - publié/réécrit en français par l'auteur mais je l'ai lu en anglais. Lecture difficile* quand même car on voit bien les origines académiques du texte (basé sur sa dissertation), ceci dit, son regard sur les marges est fascinant et profond, démêlant tous les sous entendus derrière et ses facettes.
Si vous avez envie de voir la vie en rose, ce livre n'est pas pour vous.

*Pour une lecture plus accessible sur l'immigration maghrébin, je vous conseille Les Mohamed par Jérôme Ruillier.

[Mme Forte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history, among other things, of the border Zone around Paris's periphery and how it has pretty much always been a means of excluding, if not actually identifying, those who "don't belong" in the city proper. I have to admit that this was probably beyond me in terms of philosophy and all, but I still learned quite a bit about the history of Paris, France, and racism in that country.

I do feel that a lot was asserted here that was more like opinion or belief than evidence-based reporting. But like I said...there were plenty of facts to learn, and it definitely gave me a new perspective on the importance of urban planning and social issues.

[Gabriel Nicholas]

The platonic ideal of a dissertation-turned-book.