Nights in the Big City. Paris - Berlin - London 1840-1930

8vo,br. ed. pp. 352. 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 Schlˆr 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 KertÈsz, 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. "[Schlˆr] is erudite, and his literary style is alluring."óArchitect's Journal About the Author: Joachim Schlˆr is a cultural historian at the University of Southampton. He is the author of Tel Aviv, also published by Reaktion Books