A concise history of Paris and the great events and personalities, from prehistory to the present, that have shaped its unique cultural legacy. Paris has long been celebrated as a place of style, wit and sensuality. In this deft and broad-ranging narrative, Jeremy Black demonstrates that the history of Paris is about more than a city: it is the history of a culture, a society and a state that has impacted the rest of the world through centuries of changing fortunes.

Black explores how a humble Gallic capital grew into a flourishing medieval city full of spectacular palaces and cathedrals. He depicts the opulent courts of Louis XIV and XV and the Revolution that tore French society apart; the Belle Époque and the destruction of World Wars I and II, leading us on to the Paris of today: one of the most iconic cities in the world.