The Author: W. BRIAN NEWSOME is Associate Professor of History at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA. He received his Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of South Carolina. Newsome has published articles in The Historian, French Historical Studies, and French Politics, Culture and Society, and he has co-edited a special issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques on French colonial urbanism. A Fulbright Grant and Alfred University research grants supported the research for this book.

«Newsome’s book offers a welcome look at the fascinating history of postwar French housing, a story that, to date, has largely only been told in French. (...) Newsome offers us an original take on this history, ably excising the study of housing policy from the more traditional narrative of modernization, while also sidestepping the more ‘franco-français’ debate about rehabilitating the ‘grands ensembles’. Instead, Newsome uses his examination of the state’s planning apparatus to revise received ideas about the Gaullist legacy and to highlight the contributions of the Catholic Left. Finally, by placing housing policy in a larger social and political context, he reminds us that answers to the questions of ‘What will be built?’ and ‘Who decides?’ have repercussions that may outlast the structures themselves.» (Nicole C. Rudolph, H-France Review 11, 2011)«Newsome nous offre une synthèse très claire, s’appuyant sur de riches recherches en archives (ministères, archives nationales, établissements publics, archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine ou du Finistère...), de la mise en œuvre de ces politiques fidèles aux mesures prises sous Vichy – jusqu’aux noms des architectes choisis, souvent sous l’Occupation, pour conduire la reconstruction des villes détruites. Le choix de la date, 1940, sur laquelle s’ouvre cette fresque n’a donc rien d’anodin. (...) Cette fresque nous fait donc passer des rivages de la planification urbaine la plus stricte et la plus autoritaire à l’esquisse d’une ‘participation’ citoyenne, prélude à l’émergence des luttes urbaines des années 1970.» (Jean-Louis Voileau, Contemporary French Civilization 36, 2011/3)

The Author: W. BRIAN NEWSOME is Associate Professor of History at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA. He received his Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of South Carolina. Newsome has published articles in The Historian, French Historical Studies, and French Politics, Culture and Society, and he has co-edited a special issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques on French colonial urbanism. A Fulbright Grant and Alfred University research grants supported the research for this book.

«Newsome’s book offers a welcome look at the fascinating history of postwar French housing, a story that, to date, has largely only been told in French. (...) Newsome offers us an original take on this history, ably excising the study of housing policy from the more traditional narrative of modernization, while also sidestepping the more ‘franco-français’ debate about rehabilitating the ‘grands ensembles’. Instead, Newsome uses his examination of the state’s planning apparatus to revise received ideas about the Gaullist legacy and to highlight the contributions of the Catholic Left. Finally, by placing housing policy in a larger social and political context, he reminds us that answers to the questions of ‘What will be built?’ and ‘Who decides?’ have repercussions that may outlast the structures themselves.» (Nicole C. Rudolph, H-France Review 11, 2011)«Newsome nous offre une synthèse très claire, s’appuyant sur de riches recherches en archives (ministères, archives nationales, établissements publics, archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine ou du Finistère...), de la mise en œuvre de ces politiques fidèles aux mesures prises sous Vichy – jusqu’aux noms des architectes choisis, souvent sous l’Occupation, pour conduire la reconstruction des villes détruites. Le choix de la date, 1940, sur laquelle s’ouvre cette fresque n’a donc rien d’anodin. (...) Cette fresque nous fait donc passer des rivages de la planification urbaine la plus stricte et la plus autoritaire à l’esquisse d’une ‘participation’ citoyenne, prélude à l’émergence des luttes urbaines des années 1970.» (Jean-Louis Voileau, Contemporary French Civilization 36, 2011/3)

The Author: W. BRIAN NEWSOME is Associate Professor of History at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA. He received his Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of South Carolina. Newsome has published articles in The Historian, French Historical Studies, and French Politics, Culture and Society, and he has co-edited a special issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques on French colonial urbanism. A Fulbright Grant and Alfred University research grants supported the research for this book.

«Newsome’s book offers a welcome look at the fascinating history of postwar French housing, a story that, to date, has largely only been told in French. (...) Newsome offers us an original take on this history, ably excising the study of housing policy from the more traditional narrative of modernization, while also sidestepping the more ‘franco-français’ debate about rehabilitating the ‘grands ensembles’. Instead, Newsome uses his examination of the state’s planning apparatus to revise received ideas about the Gaullist legacy and to highlight the contributions of the Catholic Left. Finally, by placing housing policy in a larger social and political context, he reminds us that answers to the questions of ‘What will be built?’ and ‘Who decides?’ have repercussions that may outlast the structures themselves.» (Nicole C. Rudolph, H-France Review 11, 2011)«Newsome nous offre une synthèse très claire, s’appuyant sur de riches recherches en archives (ministères, archives nationales, établissements publics, archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine ou du Finistère...), de la mise en œuvre de ces politiques fidèles aux mesures prises sous Vichy – jusqu’aux noms des architectes choisis, souvent sous l’Occupation, pour conduire la reconstruction des villes détruites. Le choix de la date, 1940, sur laquelle s’ouvre cette fresque n’a donc rien d’anodin. (...) Cette fresque nous fait donc passer des rivages de la planification urbaine la plus stricte et la plus autoritaire à l’esquisse d’une ‘participation’ citoyenne, prélude à l’émergence des luttes urbaines des années 1970.» (Jean-Louis Voileau, Contemporary French Civilization 36, 2011/3)