La ville captivée : Affichage et publicité au XVIIIe

Description

In the 18th century, the walls of Paris were covered with posters. These posters published laws and regulations, announced shows and deaths, offered goods for sale and jobs to be filled, spread news and rumours, mocked the authorities, and defended or destroyed reputations. They attracted the curiosity of passers-by and the mistrust of the authorities. During the Revolution, these ephemeral prints played an essential role in the production and contestation of the new political order, to the point of fascinating contemporaries. They reveal the dynamics of a city captivated by the commercial logic of capitalism and a constantly changing flow of information. A historian of the city and the media, Laurent Cuvelier delves into previously unpublished archives to reconstruct the visual panorama of a city in the midst of change. He shows that the profusion of posters, far from being a mere object of curiosity, made Paris during the Enlightenment and then the Revolution a veritable laboratory of urban modernity.