Review Article: Gathering Intelligence in the Age of Louis XIV

Lucien Bély. Espions et Ambassadeurs au Temps de Louis XIV. Paris: Fayard, 1990. Pp. 905.     

法国的路易十四研究

18世纪以来,法国人对于路易十四的兴趣就一直存在着,对于他的研究的基本脉络未曾中断,并且不断获得成绩。目前法国人对于路易十四的研究有以下几个新特点:虽然有关著述的作者的行业与职务颇不相同,但著述内容丰富,论述详实;比较一致的美化路易十四的现象颇为突出;研究范围广泛,路易十四的婚姻、身体、宫廷生活、个人情感,甚至一些难题皆有研究者进行探讨,并且已经出版不少著述;法国作者们对于路易十四的情妇关注过多,削弱了对于历史的主要内容(经济、政治、文化、军事、社会生活等)的研究。总之,法国人对于路易十四的研究既取得了实实在在的成绩,同时还有若干问题有待继续加深研究。     

Non-events and their legacies: Parisian heritage and the Olympics that never were

This paper examines three failed bids by the French Olympic Committee and the City of Paris to host the summer Olympic Games of 1992, 2008 and 2012 in an attempt better to understand the role of heritage designations in the context of urban change. Introducing the various sites earmarked for the Games, the paper explores the relationship between planning as a political tool and its impact on the built environment within the context of a complex web of local, national and international demands, needs and aspirations. Based on archival research, the paper explores the dialectical relationship between the demonstrated ability of city councils to declare designated ‘Olympic’ spaces as functionally ‘ready’ to absorb massive new infrastructures and questions posed by whatever physical infrastructure remains after a bid has failed. Since the timeframe chosen for the paper (1986–2006) coincides with a move by the International Olympic Committee to prioritise ‘sustainable urbanism’ as a key legacy of ‘successful’ Olympic Games, this relationship between presences and absences is mediated not just with the help of possible futures in the form of Olympic sites but has had to validate and justify the choice of terrain as well. The paper concludes with a brief meditation on the relationship between present urban heritage and possible futures in the context of mega-events like the Olympic Games.     

Review Article: Louis XVI and Vergennes

JOHN HARDMAN and MUNRO PRICE, eds. Louis XVI and the comte de Vergennes: Correspondence, 1774–1787. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1999. Pp. xvii, 403. £65.00. Reviewed by H. M. Scott