My favorite work of impossible scholarship of the 20th century is Walter Benjamin's unfinished Arcades Project. Benjamin's opus aimed at nothing than being an encylopedia of life in Paris in the mid-1800s, post Haussmann. Suddenly blessed with a city opened up by the expansive bureaus and a period of relative economic and political stability, Paris saw an explosion of the middle class. The arcades of the title refers to the covered shopping areas that suddenly started popping up at this time. These arcades became a place to be a flaneur, a person with the time and means to stroll, a voyeur who also wanted to be seen. These are often called the original shopping malls, although when you see them today they seem one heck of a lot more charming. I've included a series of pictures from some of the arcades and passages that are still standing, as well as a picture of the covered walkway at the Place des Vosges, which was actually built in the early 17th century for the same purpose, and even included stores in the promenade. Of course that was for a more moneyed class.
