Integrating the history of Paris with the history of consumption, the
press, publicity, advertising and spectacle, this book traces the
evolution of the urban core districts of consumption and explores
elements of consumer culture such as the print media, publishing, retail
techniques, tourism, city marketing, fashion, illustrated posters and
Montmartre culture in the nineteenth century. Hahn emphasizes the
tension between art and industry and between culture and commerce, a
dynamic that significantly marked urban commercial modernity that spread
new imaginary about consumption. She argues that Parisian consumer
culture arose earlier than generally thought, and explores the intense
commercialization Paris underwent.