The Paris of popular imagination is lined with cobblestone streets and stylish cafés, a beacon for fashionistas and well-heeled tourists. But French American journalist Cole Stangler, celebrated for his reporting on Paris and French politics, argues that the beating heart of the City of Light lies elsewhere – in the striving, working-class districts, where residents are now being priced out.
Paris Isn't Dead Yet explores the past, present and future of the city through the lens of class conflict, highlighting the outsized role of immigrants in shaping the city's progressive, cosmopolitan and open-minded character – at a time when politics nationwide can feel like they're shifting in the opposite direction. This is the Paris many tourists too often miss: immigrant-heavy districts such as the 18th arrondissement, where crowded street markets still define everyday life. Stangler brings this view of the city to life, combining gripping, street-level reportage, stories of today's working-class Parisians, recent history and a sweeping analysis of the larger forces shaping the city.
An eye-opening portrait of one of the world's most vital urban centres, Paris Isn't Dead Yet is a moment of reckoning for how cities everywhere serve us today.
