Paris on the Brink vividly portrays the City of Light during the
tumultuous 1930s, from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to war and German
Occupation. This was a dangerous and turbulent decade, during which
workers flexed their economic muscle and their opponents struck back
with increasing violence. As the divide between haves and have-nots
widened, so did the political split between left and right, with
animosities exploding into brutal clashes, intensified by the
paramilitary leagues of the extreme right. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini
escalated the increasingly hazardous international environment, while
the civil war in Spain added to the instability of the times. Yet
throughout the decade, Paris remained at the center of cultural
creativity. Major figures on the Paris scene, such as Gertrude Stein,
Ernest Hemingway, André Gide, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Igor
Stravinsky, and Coco Chanel, continued to hold sway, in addition to
Josephine Baker, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, Man Ray, and Le Corbusier.
Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre could now be seen at their
favorite cafés, while Jean Renoir, Salvador Dalí, and Elsa Schiaparelli
came to prominence, along with France's first Socialist prime minister,
Léon Blum. Despite the decade's creativity and glamour, it remained a
difficult and dangerous time, and Parisians responded with growing
nativism and anti-Semitism, while relying on their Maginot Line to
protect them from external harm. Through rich illustrations and
evocative narrative, Mary McAuliffe brings this extraordinary era to
life.
