The Zone

Praise

“Shows how to read the recent history of Paris from its edge towards its center. How do the complicated conditions in the banlieue shape life for the Paris of tourists, monuments and bourgeois amenities? This book is innovative in its methods and absorbing in its analysis. More than this, Justinien Tribillon has worked out a way to understand other cities from the outside in”
—RICHARD SENNETT author of The Performer

“An indispensable guide to the real Paris, The Zone offers a succinct but comprehensive urban and social history laying bare the politics of class, race and planning that have shaped the impoverished environment and marginalised communities of the capital’s banlieue.”
—JOHN BOUGHTON author of Municipal Dreams

“This captivating book admirably challenges the constructed myths about Paris and the banlieue. It dismantles the fabricated oppositions between the two by scrutinizing the spaces, politics and voices of the Zone. The book is a remarkable examination and a groundbreaking critique of “the most unknown yet quintessentially Parisian space””
—SAMIA HENNI author of Architecture of Counterrevolution

“Fascinating … it is by pushing us to think about the cultural biases and politics of urban infrastructure that The Zone hits its mark.”
—Stephen W. Sawyer, Times Literary Supplement

“[A] searing account of life in the interstices of the capital for the working class and North African immigrants from the mid-19th century to the present day.”
—Lauren Elkin

“A compelling history of the city’s margins, exploring its politics and policies, revealing its illusions.”
—Aaron Peck, Frieze