Paris Tramways as Artifacts of Civilization and Barbarism in the Age of Empire, 1890s–1920s

Abstract

From the 1890s to 1914, Paris's horse-drawn and motorized tramway networks expanded rapidly. Growth peaked before the 1900 Universal Exposition, when officials approved nineteen new lines to serve Parisians and millions of guests gathered to celebrate the turning century. These tramways inspired two types of protest. Historians have noted NIMBY-like bourgeois efforts to exclude tramways and poorer passengers from wealthy neighborhoods, but they have overlooked popular protest for tramway inclusion. This essay builds on previous historical mobility studies, including Peter Norton's and my own, that analyze the language used in negotiating transportation infrastructure. Protests against the tramways registered in the press in notable categories of epithets: