Alumni Travel Reading Lists 2020: Paris in the Jazz Age

Covers political, economic, and cultural milestones throughout France’s history.

Relying on official maps, this book looks at how government representations of Paris and its environs changed over the course of the Third Republic (1889-1934).

Examines what happened to the poet Elizabeth Bishop during three-weeks she spent in Paris amidst the imminent threat of World War II.

Account of the nineteenth-century reinvention of Paris as the most beautiful, exciting city in the world.

This book explores the strength of the French fashion industry and its connection to French culture.

A retrospective about an artist who is represented in major collections from the Metropolitan to the Louvre. Even posthumously, Antonio has not relinquished his grip on the fashion world: his style and quest for beauty live on.

Focuses on how the French fashion press has been able to construct Paris as a leading world fashion city.

Examines how fictional works have contributed to shaping the image of the French Resistance, and offers a key to understanding France's culture.

Explores the French genre, noir, through the years 1941-1959. Reveals noir as a product of the social and cultural factors at play in occupied, liberated and post-war France.

During Gabin’s 45-year career, he acted in 95 films. This biography traces his life in cinema, including his involvement in the réalisme poétique and film noir movements of the 1930s and 1940s.

Rashida K. Braggs investigates the the African-American postwar musical migration to Paris. She brings her attention to important figures including musicians Sidney Bechet, Inez Cavanaugh, and Kenny Clarke and writer and social critic James Baldwin to show how they performed both as artists and as African Americans. Their collaborations with French musicians and critics complicated racial and cultural understandings of "authentic" jazz

Provides a record of how American music evolved on the European continent and explores the history of jazz in individual European countries.

Perchard focuses on the French jazz practices of the postwar era and provides an intertwining of musical and historical narrative.

Examines not only how and why jazz became so widely performed in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s but also why it was so controversial.

In this study of Pierre Chareau's Maison de Verre through Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass, Cheatle challenges existing architectural descriptions of the Maison de Verre and presents new architectural readings.

Documents the work and history of American architecture students at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Mead considers the Central Markets from the perspective Baltard's contributions to the design and structure and how it fits into his overall oeuvre.

Examines more than 60 of France's most important architectural landmarks, describing the features, functions, and historical importance of each structure.

First published in 1927 to educate French housewives in the art of cooking, this culinary classic has since become indispensable to those seeking to become adept at the French cooking technique.

Provides a guidedexploration of the dishes and techniques that have earned the designation haute cuisine, but be prepared to learn more about the fare of the quotidian.

Examines the great chefs of the 19th century and their role in creating a professional class of chefs trained in French principles and techniques.

Group biography of the figures who transformed the world of art in bohemian Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century.

This panorama of the arts scene in Jazz Age France draws on letters, diaries, journals, photo albums, and private archives.

Provides an alternative history of African American music and musicians in France. Pinpoints key issues of race and nation in France's jazz history from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Adelaide Hall pushed down the barriers that had prevented black entertainers from reaching mass recognition. The media attention she received on both sides of the Atlantic turned Adelaide into the first international black female superstar.

this work takes a look at theperiod in time during which African American musicians could flee the racism of the United States to pursue their lives and art in the relatively free context of bohemian Europe.

In this illuminating autobiography, Langston Hughes recounts his youthful and often difficult and traumatic years, traveling the world to find work and ultimately to being his writing career. Hughes spends a signifcant period of time in Paris visiting jazz clubs and getting to know some of the artists. The Big Sea should be on every reading list.

Chronicle of a fascinating decade in the city's cultural history. The narrative is accompanied by period photographs.

Portrays Paris during the 1920s. Traces a decade that saw change from art and architecture to music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and behavior.

Eatwell explores the truth behind forty-five myths about the French.