{"product_id":"zone-1","title":"Zone","description":"In \u0026lt;i\u0026gt;The Zone\u0026lt;\/i\u0026gt;, Justinien Tribillon takes the reader on a tour of an eponymous Parisian hinterland. The site of dreams and nightmares, from Van Gogh’s paintings to the cinematic  violence of \u0026lt;i\u0026gt;La Haine\u0026lt;\/i\u0026gt;, the Zone, so often misun- derstood, is the key to understanding today’s  Paris, and even France itself.\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;Originally the site of defensive walls, alongside which mushroomed makeshift housing, allotments, and dancehalls in the nineteenth century, the Zone has performed many functions and been a place of contention for  two centuries. Dismantled in the 1920s, the fortifications were first replaced with gardens, stadia and homes. After the war came the Boulevard Périphérique, a ring road promising seamless travel in a futuristic car-centric Paris. With the ring road came new dreams of modernity in reinvented suburbs: new towns, high-rise architecture and social housing built at record speed. Yesterday’s Paris made way for tomorrow’s banlieue.\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;But the metropolitan dream was never realised. The Zone became a symbol of division: between inner and outer cities; between the bourgeois centre and the working-class immigrant outskirts; between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The Zone, both a physical space and a powerful myth, came to crystallise the social, spatial and ethno-racial differences between Paris and the banlieue.\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;\u0026lt;br\u0026gt;\u0026lt;i\u0026gt;The Zone\u0026lt;\/i\u0026gt; is a brilliant anatomy of the true heart of Paris. An essential book for urbanists and historians.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57235234685310,"sku":"NW9781804294048","price":15.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781804294048.jpg?v=1778549736","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/zone-1","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}