Paris Under Water

standards) worth of damage, provides a fascinating study of physical and social devastation and human survival.  Jackson blends the vivid details of the flood - exploding sewer covers, disintegrating streets - with the wider historical context, from the Commune of 1871 to World War I, and the psychology of disaster.  Modernization itself contributed to Paris's destruction.  But, as Jackson concludes, in the end Paris survived the flood because it was a functioning human community, not because it was a modern metropolis.  Any student of history or lover of Paris will want to read this book.' - Sarah Smith, The Knowledge of Water, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year   'Fascinating work, important story, beautifully told. Jackson tells us about a little-known flood of a well-known city, Paris. He weaves seamlessly together the political and cultural significance of the flood, all while engaging the reader with stories about what the flood meant for everyday life. A fine achievement.'- Lee Clarke, author of Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination     'Narratives of natural disasters often show swift and all-consuming devastation, but PARIS Paris Under Water is a story of waters rising.  Set against the backdrop of the world's most beautiful city, the Seine itself is at the center of the story ­ from its role in making Paris a modern city to the day in 1910 when Parisians stood on its banks and watched it climb several feet a day, carrying debris from flooded towns in the countryside.  Through Jackson's deft storytelling and first-hand accounts, we see the terror of watching a disaster slowly, methodically drown a city and a community's fight to survive it.'- Molly Caldwell Crosby, An American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History   'Stories about Paris have left us with a rich profile of a city at the vanguard of political action and cultural life.  Yet Jeffrey H. Jackson's new book muddies these familiar waters.  His gripping account of the 1910 flood recounts the highs and the lows of what happened when water "shorted out" the city of light.  With a knack for the diversity of human response to disaster and the historian's eye for the telling detail, Jackson draws our attention to how nature interacts with our greatest of human-wrought environments:  the metropolis.  This book not only is an important tale, worthy of being told but it also will open the door to reconsiderations of the interaction of technology and the environment in ways that are vitally relevant today.' - Vanessa R. Schwartz, It's So French: Hollywood, Paris, and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture   'A spirited look at the Parisian move into "Syst'me D" - crisis mode.' - Kirkus    'An engrossing narrative' - Library Journal     'Enlivened by period photographs of a flooded Paris, this is a capable, well-researched history of a modern city's battle with nature' - Publishers Weekly    'Combining exhaustive archival research and such primary sources as the diary of the city's chief of police, the book creates a compelling image of what at the time was viewed as an epachal event in one fo the world's great cities.  It shows, in compelling fashion and with shades of Hurricane Katrina, how a city that has been often riven by divisions managed to come together to face a body blow from nature and how the City of Light managed to shine once again.' - Michael Deibert    'Jackson ... has written an agreeably non-academic account of the Seine's rise and fall. He has also put together an excellent Web site - www.parisunderwater.com - that includes a number of photographs and a brief explanatory text. It is a useful companion piece to the book as well as a free-standing if brief story of the flood.' - Washington Post