Exceptionalism and the National Capital in Late 20th-Century Paris and Washington, DC

For more than 100 years-including the first three-quarters of the 20th century-the French and American republics denied the most basic democratic rights to all the citizens living in their capital cities. As French filmmaker Chris Marker declared tartly in his provocative 1962 cinematic essay, Le Joli Mai: “Le maire de Paris aurait du pain sur la planche, mais il n’y a pas de maire à Paris” (“The mayor of Paris would have a lot to do, but there isn’t a mayor in Paris”). Surprisingly, urban historians have largely avoided Paris and Washington, DC, considered either too unrepresentative-or just too unwieldy-to fit into the field’s established interpretations. And more generally, capital cities have occupied their own distinct niche of scholarship, segregated even from the mainstream narratives of relevant subdisciplines like urban planning, urban political theory, or urban history.