Paris abounds in the history of more than 2,000 years old legacy of wars, enriched culture and high-class literature with poetry, prose, drama and world-class architectural designs to amaze the world. The Gauls of the Parisii tribe settled here in Paris around 250 and 200 B.C. They went on to find a fishing village on an island situated in the river which is the “Ile de la Cite” of the present day. This was the main center around which the entire city of Paris was built and structured. Paris was known as “Lutetia” (Lutece) in the medieval times and was occupied by Julius Caesar in 52 B.C. Paris continued to subsist as a regional center under the influence of the Romans during the early Middle Ages. In 987, the Count of Paris named as Hugh Capet became the King of France. Under his successors and clan which came to be known as the Capetians, Paris continued to flourish as the national capital city of France. The people of Paris were considered to be rebellious and high-spirited as they went on to declare themselves as an independent commune in 1355-58 under the leadership of Etienne Marcel. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille was the first in the series of actions which was accelerated by the people of Paris and this came to be known as the French Revolution. During the years 1830 and 1848, Paris played a major role in the French Revolution as it became the center of all prime activities which took place on the social, economic, political domains of the revolutionary period.

What was the personality of 19th-century Paris? To answer that question, this book eschews the conventional narrative and chronological route taken by most histories of Paris. Instead, it thematically analyses the complex personality traits of Paris from the onset of the Revolution of 1789 to the beginning of the Great War. Starting with the topographical and cultural legacies that late 18th-century Paris inherited from its foundation in pre-Roman and Roman times and from its medieval infancy and early-modern adolescence, The Personality of Paris unpacks the social and material complexity of the 19th-century city. It considers the role of immigration in the making of Parisians and in the city's growth from half a million in 1801 to almost three million in 1911. It examines the making of its distinctive landscape through the construction of monuments and architectural icons, through its massive re-modelling by Napoléon III and Baron Haussmann, through its five world exhibitions, through its emphasis on food, fashion and leisure, and through the ways in which Parisians sought rural release from urban pressure. Finally, the book considers the self-harm done to the person of 19th-century Paris by revolutions and wars and the damage inflicted on it by 20th-century hubristic politicians and architects.