TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 631 cial implications of the drawings receive little attention (by design), although the editors usually alert the reader to their broader signifi cance: those that survive for the Washington, D.C., townhouse of Commodore Stephen Decatur, for example, include several for the carpentry of windows and doors, which, while exhibiting the care Latrobe the artist gave to such details, also document the profes sional architect’s advance into the traditional (creative and remuner ative) precincts of the American artificer and craftsman. Such di mensions in architecture can also be explored in the Latrobe project’s three-volume editions of Latrobe’s Journals (ed. Edward Carter II, John C. Van Horne, and Lee Formwalt [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1977-80]) and his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers (ed.John C. Van Horne and Lee Formwalt [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984-88]). C. M. Harris Dr. Harris is editor of the Papers ofWilliam, Thornton (Charlottesville, Va.: Univer sity Press of Virginia, 1995-) and coeditor of Papers Relating to the U.S. Patent Office during the Superintendence of William Thornton, 1802-1828 (Washington, D.C.: Na tional Archives [Federal Documentary Microfilm Edition No. 1], 1987). Bâtir la ville: Révolutions industrielles dans les matériaux de construction, France-Grande-Bretagne, 1760-1840. By André Guillerme. Paris: Champ Vallon, 1995. Pp. 315; illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. The subject of this book is the fundamental, yet “invisible,” as pects of the reconstruction that transformed the preindustrial city into a modern urban entity at the turn of the 19th century. André Guillerme shows the technical basis of this modernization, which first became visible in Paris during the Haussmann era. Its revolu tionary prerequisites lay far back in the years between 1760 and 1840. In his introduction Guillerme indicates his central concern: to show that the “industrial revolution” in building depended on the development of new materials and building techniques, which have until now largely been disregarded in the historiography of city de velopment. Guillerme seeks to follow what he calls the “logic ofcon struction,” advancing from the foundation through the frame and roof to the technical outfitting of the interior. From this issues his analysis of urbanization. In his prologue, Guillerme compares England and France in light of their well-known differences, which can be summed up in the terms étatism and liberalism. What is new here is his depiction of the simultaneity of the revolutions in public works in different cultural and economic contexts. He contrasts the well-known developments in Great Britain that followed the Building Act of 1774 with the tacit revolution of the French state construction system, which orginated in the geopolitical thinking of the prerevolutionary era. The French 632 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE state through its Corps de l’officier du génie elevated Cormontaigne’s fascinating concept of table rase to an ideology of aménagement du territoire (p. 48), which saw the whole countryside as malleable raw material. The military aspects of a geopolitical orientation to con struction by one of Europe’s greatest powers and its consequences for planning, not to mention for the development of technical theo ries, have not been considered in such detail before. An important element in the aménagement du territoire was the development of the first theories of soil behavior as applied to military fortifications; these principles—in effect, demonstrations of power—found fur ther application in the construction of public works and official buildings. Military planning turned the landscape into a geometrical topos, in which representations of its geography and soil properties replaced the land itself. In addition to its own “rational” approach, France was able to use the knowledge gained elsewhere in continen tal Europe. Above all, Holland’s extensive experience in building fortresses, dikes, and other water containment projects provided a practical backdrop of experience for France’s great construction projects. In the second chapter Guillerme clarifies the connections among aménagement du territoire, theories of soil mechanics, and technologi cal development in a very detailed fashion. Even after the defeat of Napoleon, planning and construction technology again and again influenced the politics ofpower. The French victory...
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