Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris

Rating:
Summary: A fine balance between biography and history
Review: Baron Haussman was the famous 'architect' of modern Paris and has been little covered in history: enter Carmona, a biographer who sets the architect's life against the backdrop of 19th-century European society and history. A fine balance between biography and history is created in a survey of Haussmann's involvement in civic life as an administrator, and his influence on Paris politics and structures.

Rating:
Summary: Take a gamble and love it
Review: Recently, I was looking for a book about Georges-Eugene Haussmann because of a long time interest in Paris, and when you come to speak of how it developed, that is a name that you just cannot ignore. The book hasn't been out for so long, so I took a gamble in buying it (no reviews were posted pretty much anywhere).
The first part of the book is about Haussmann and how he climbed up the ladder in the civil service (without losing sight of any of the cultural or historical background), when the following parts of the book focus more on Haussmann's time in Paris and the changes he made there (what it should be about). The only comment you can give on this part is that the maps in the back of the book are not enough to understand the bigger picture. I don't know whether this should be included in the book or whether the writer should have recommended the reader to buy a detailed plan de paris. He didn't say that so that's the star that's missing, but short of that, I think it's the perfect book you can buy about Baron Haussmann, his plans to change Paris and the cultural circumstances surrounding it.