Paris on the Brink: The 1930s Paris of Jean Renoir, Salvador Dalí, Simone de Beauvoir, André Gide, Sylvia Beach, Léon Blum, and Their Friends

by Mary McAuliffe

Overview

Paris on the Brink vividly portrays the City of Light during the tumultuous 1930s, from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to war and German Occupation. This was a dangerous and turbulent decade, during which workers flexed their economic muscle and their opponents struck back with increasing violence. As the divide between haves and have-nots widened, so did the political split between left and right, with animosities exploding into brutal clashes, intensified by the paramilitary leagues of the extreme right. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini escalated the increasingly hazardous international environment, while the civil war in Spain added to the instability of the times.

Yet throughout the decade, Paris remained at the center of cultural creativity. Major figures on the Paris scene, such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, André Gide, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, and Coco Chanel, continued to hold sway, in addition to Josephine Baker, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, Man Ray, and Le Corbusier. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre could now be seen at their favorite cafés, while Jean Renoir, Salvador Dalí, and Elsa Schiaparelli came to prominence, along with France’s first Socialist prime minister, Léon Blum.

Despite the decade’s creativity and glamour, it remained a difficult and dangerous time, and Parisians responded with growing nativism and anti-Semitism, while relying on their Maginot Line to protect them from external harm. Through rich illustrations and evocative narrative, Mary McAuliffe brings this extraordinary era to life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538112380
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/13/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	767,443
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Mary McAuliffe holds a PhD in history from the University of Maryland, has taught at several universities, and has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution, the Barnes Foundation, and the Frick Pittsburgh. She travels extensively in France, and for many years she was a regular contributor to Paris Notes. Her books include Clash of Crowns, Dawn of the Belle Epoque, Twilight of the Belle Epoque, When Paris Sizzled, and Paris, City of Dreams. She lives in New York City with her husband.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Map of Paris
Chapter 1 End of an Era (1929)
Chapter 2 Rags and Riches (1929)
Chapter 3 It Could Never Happen Here (1930)
Chapter 4 The Ooh La La Factor (1930)
Chapter 5 Navigating a Dangerous World (1931–1932)
Chapter 6 Taking Sides (1933)
Chapter 7 Bloody Tuesday (1934)
Chapter 8 Sailing, Sailing (1935)
Chapter 9 Coming Apart (1936)
Chapter 10 War in Spain (1936)
Chapter 11 End of the Dream (1937)
Chapter 12 In War’s Shadow (1938)
Chapter 13 Dancing on a Volcano (1939)
Chapter 14 Closing the Circle (1940)
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

McAuliffe (When Paris Sizzled, 2016) continues her career-defining cultural survey of Paris as the global depression gives rise to fascism and another world war.... McAuliffe, once again, presents a memorable collage of Parisian legends.

Booklist

Rich and fascinating, this cleverly woven tapestry of stories from the turbulent 1930s shows how the political and artistic worlds of Paris came together in the powerful march of history. Paris on the Brink delivers a genuinely engaging and dramatic account of a profoundly significant era.

Laird Easton

Paris on the Brink vividly evokes the cultural and political life of Paris during the 1930s. The cast of characters is comprehensive. Hemingway, James Joyce, André Gide, Coco Chanel, Henry Miller, and Josephine Baker, among many other notables, mingle in a bright narrative that wheels from portrait to portrait like a whirligig overshadowed by the lengthening specter of war. McAuliffe has written a truly absorbing book.

Frederick Brown

A breezy, rollicking, and vastly entertaining popular history of the international cultural and intellectual life of Paris during the troubled decade just before the Second World War.

Victoria Best

A breezy, rollicking, and vastly entertaining popular history of the international cultural and intellectual life of Paris during the troubled decade just before the Second World War.

Paris on the Brink vividly evokes the cultural and political life of Paris during the 1930s. The cast of characters is comprehensive. Hemingway, James Joyce, André Gide, Coco Chanel, Henry Miller, and Josephine Baker, among many other notables, mingle in a bright narrative that wheels from portrait to portrait like a whirligig overshadowed by the lengthening specter of war. McAuliffe has written a truly absorbing book.

McAuliffe (When Paris Sizzled, 2016) continues her career-defining cultural survey of Paris as the global depression gives rise to fascism and another world war.... McAuliffe, once again, presents a memorable collage of Parisian legends.

Rich and fascinating, this cleverly woven tapestry of stories from the turbulent 1930s shows how the political and artistic worlds of Paris came together in the powerful march of history. Paris on the Brink delivers a genuinely engaging and dramatic account of a profoundly significant era.

From the Publisher