The subject of the article is the process of creating industrial regions of France. On the basis of statistical data and referring to the number of employees in the industry, the number of industrial plants and the dimension of industrial production, an attempt at industrial regions delimitation has been made. Workshops dominated industrial activity up to the 19th century. They were mostly situated in densely populated northern parts of France. The factor which initiated the process of industry concentration was the invention of the steam engine. This dependence of industry on the steam engine and coal caused industry concentration in the regions which were rich in natural resources and trained manpower. In the second phase of industry concentration water-energy basis played the main role. It led to the creation of large industrial centres in the mountains and around big cities. Due to the industrial growth index the industrial centres of France were situated in four regions. The most industrialized region was the North, covering Flandres, Picardy, Île-de-France and Upper Normandy – the Seine Valley. The eastern region covered Ardenne, Champagne, Lorraine and Alsace. The third region was Lyon and St-Étienne and the regions of the Alps and the Saone Valley. In the south the regions of Provence with Marseille and the Rhone estuary were standing out.
The urban history is a research area which eludes classical historiography and gives romm for many interesting phenomena. One of them are “biographies of cities”, which means the way of writing about about an urban history that imitates the biographies of famous people. Marcin Szymański made an attempt to write a biography of Łódź. This article assesses whether the researcher associated with the Institute of History at the University of Lodz has fulfilled this task well or not. Secondly, the place of M. Szymański’s book in the literature on Łódź and its usefulness as a source of knowledge about the city’s past were also analyzed here. Finally, strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed book were pointed out.
PL
Historia miast stanowi obszar badawczy, w którym dochodzi do szeregu interesujących zjawisk, wymykających się klasycznej historiografii. Jednym z nich są „biografie miast”, czyli sposób pisania o ich przeszłości naśladujący biografie postaci historycznych. Próby napisania biografii Łodzi podjął się Marcin Szymański. W artykule niniejszym dokonano oceny czy badacz związany z Instytutem Historii Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego dobrze wywiązał się z tego zadania. Przeanalizowano także miejsce książki M. Szymańskiego w literaturze poświęconej Łodzi i jej użyteczność jako źródła wiedzy o przeszłości miasta. Wskazano także mocne i słabe strony recenzowanej książki.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.