This is the first critical work on the history of the French Riviera from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day in the English language. It makes the argument that multi-faceted power and violence – war, murder, land dispossession and other privations targeted at the poor, imperialism and ecological degradation (land, sea, rivers and air) – has been integral to the making of the Côte d’Azur. Invariably, this has been downplayed in previous general histories that tend to focus on the personal lives and loves of famous outsiders. In effect, the complex general history of the place is rarely told. Bryant seeks to set that record straight in an innovative work crisscrossing the borders of European and imperial history, geography, politics and environmental studies that will be of interest to an array of scholars, students and general readers who wish to learn about how the planet’s most famous coastal resort was made.

Prof. Raymond Leslie Bryant, independent writer formerly based at King’s College London, UK.

"The interweaving of themes is a challenge in a book like this since questions are constantly posed about how much scope to give each one. The author navigates these problems with an easy and assured style that makes the book an enjoyable read. Coherence builds as each chapter adds further layers of understanding. The themes, relating to the establishment of the region as a leisure destination, the enormous wealth deployed to do so, the implications of this in terms of both the natural and the built environment, and the mutations it undergoes over time, are all dealt with in a clear and fluid way." – Jim Wolfreys, King's College London