1815 to 1855
1848 Revolution
A01=Alain Corbin
after the French Revolution
Alain Corbin
Alain Corbin's new book
Alain Corbin’s new book
Ancien Regime
Author_Alain Corbin
beauty
Bronze Age
Category=NHB
Category=NHD
cornice
decoration
dust
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
France
France's phantom century
France’s phantom century
French Empire
French Republic
Iron Age
July Monarchy
life-casting
long nineteenth century
Louis XVII
moulding
Napoleon's death mask
Napoleon’s death mask
nineteenth-century Paris
plaster
plaster and houses
plaster and poverty
plaster as the allegory of a phantom century
plaster of Paris
Restoration
Stone Age
the age of plaster
Victor Hugo
what is the history of plaster?
what was plaster used for?
when was plaster introduced?
Product details
- ISBN 9781509565948
- Weight: 204g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 25 Apr 2025
- Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The distant past is commonly characterized in terms of dominant materials of the time – the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, etc. Since the dawn of writing, however, characterizing eras in terms of materials has fallen by the wayside, and yet materials have continued to exert a powerful influence on our collective imagination.
Viewed from this perspective, France in the period from 1815 to 1855 could be seen as the half-century of plaster. After the French Revolution, plaster was used for a great variety of things: building, moulding, sculpting, decorating. Cheap and easy to use, plaster was everywhere, from Napoleon’s death mask to household ornaments, from walls to elaborate mouldings. Plaster was king – but a fragile king that easily crumbled and fell apart. The age of plaster was also the reign of the ephemeral and the transient, the vulgar and the eclectic, and the men and women of the time struggled to maintain stability and continuity with the past. In the space of a few decades, no fewer than seven political regimes succeeded one another. Plaster – symbol of the ephemeral, the flaking and the vulgar – is the material which defines the first half of the nineteenth century.
Written with his characteristic brilliance and eye for unconventional topics, Alain Corbin’s highly original exploration of the role of plaster in history will be of interest to a wide readership.
Viewed from this perspective, France in the period from 1815 to 1855 could be seen as the half-century of plaster. After the French Revolution, plaster was used for a great variety of things: building, moulding, sculpting, decorating. Cheap and easy to use, plaster was everywhere, from Napoleon’s death mask to household ornaments, from walls to elaborate mouldings. Plaster was king – but a fragile king that easily crumbled and fell apart. The age of plaster was also the reign of the ephemeral and the transient, the vulgar and the eclectic, and the men and women of the time struggled to maintain stability and continuity with the past. In the space of a few decades, no fewer than seven political regimes succeeded one another. Plaster – symbol of the ephemeral, the flaking and the vulgar – is the material which defines the first half of the nineteenth century.
Written with his characteristic brilliance and eye for unconventional topics, Alain Corbin’s highly original exploration of the role of plaster in history will be of interest to a wide readership.
Alain Corbin is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne.
