Joan DeJean has been Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania since 1988. She previously taught at Yale and at Princeton. She is the author of eleven books on French literature, history, and material culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including most recently How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City (2014); The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began (2009); The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Caf�s, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour (2005). She lives in Philadelphia and, when in Paris, around the corner from the house where, in 1612, this story began.
Wittily written and impeccably researched . . . DeJean nimbly demonstrates the city's postcard-perfect charm owes much to the vision of two savvy monarchs. - New York Times Book Review on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel. - New Yorker on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS