Social theories of modernity focus on the nineteenth century as
the period when Western Europe was transformed by urbanization.
Cities became thriving metropolitan centers as a result of
economic, political, and social changes wrought by the industrial
revolution. In "Cultural Capitals," Karen Newman demonstrates that
speculation and capital, the commodity, the crowd, traffic, and the
street, often thought to be historically specific to
nineteenth-century urban culture, were in fact already at work in
early modern London and Paris.
Newman challenges the notion of a rupture between premodern and
modern societies and shows how London and Paris became cultural
capitals. Drawing upon poetry, plays, and prose by writers such as
Shakespeare, Scudery, Boileau, and Donne, as well as popular
materials including pamphlets, ballads, and broadsides, she
examines the impact of rapid urbanization on cultural production.
Newman shows how changing demographics and technological
development altered these two emerging urban centers in which new
forms of cultural capital were produced and new modes of
sociability and representation were articulated.
"Cultural Capitals" is a fascinating work of literary and
cultural history that redefines our conception of when the modern
city came to be and brings early modern London and Paris alive in
all their splendor, squalor, and richness."
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