Celebrating the City - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Elaine Tierney (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book uses a wide range of textual, visual and material evidence to offer the first comparative, interdisciplinary study of festivals in London and Paris. Its unique methodology, combining the tools of design history and the concerns of political history, sheds new light on how political publics were formed in early modern European cities.

Book Synopsis

Celebrating the city goes behind the scenes of early modern celebrations. Moving from splendid coronations to courtyard bonfires, it offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary study of festivals in London and Paris. In a major departure from existing scholarship, it uses the widest range of textual, visual and material evidence to demonstrate the importance of designing, making and organising to how and why festivals were meaningful. Mining evidence of the active processes by which events were made, it argues that urban festival politics cannot be understood without incorporating its material world into our analysis. The book's unique methodology, combining the tools of design history and the concerns of political history, will shed new light on how political publics were formed in early modern European cities. In showing how cities made festivals - and festivals made cities - this wide-ranging study makes a significant contribution to histories of festivals, political culture and urban life.

From the Back Cover

Celebrating the city looks behind the scenes of early modern celebrations. This timely and original book uses the widest range of textual, visual and material evidence to explore the full gamut of celebratory activities - from splendid coronations to hastily constructed bonfires. In doing so, it offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary study of festivals in London and Paris. At stake throughout is how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Londoners and Parisians understood the one-off, annual and seasonal events that shaped their lives. By mining evidence of the active processes by which events were made, the book reveals the central importance of designing, making and organising to how and why festivals were meaningful. Ultimately, it argues that the politics of urban festivals cannot be understood without incorporating their material world into our analysis. The book's unique methodology, combining the tools of design history and the concerns of political history, sheds new light on how political publics were formed in early modern European cities. In showing how cities made festivals - and festivals made cities - this wide-ranging study makes a significant contribution to histories of festivals, political culture and urban life.

About the Author

Elaine Tierney is Senior tutor, History of Design and Material Culture, V&A Research Institute (VARI)