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Hotel Dreams: Luxury, Technology, and Urban Ambition in America, 1829-1929
Molly W. Berger
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Description for Hotel Dreams: Luxury, Technology, and Urban Ambition in America, 1829-1929
Paperback. The fascinating stories behind their design, construction, and marketing reveal in rich detail how these buildings became cultural symbols that shaped the urban landscape. Series: Studies in Industry and Society. Num Pages: 328 pages, 46 black & white halftones, 1 black & white halftones, 1 black & white halftones. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JH; 3JJ; HBJK; HBLL; PDR; RGL. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 20. .
Winner, 2012 Sally Hacker Prize, Society for the History of Technology Hotel Dreams is a deeply researched and entertaining account of how the hotel's material world of machines and marble integrated into and shaped the society it served. Molly W. Berger offers a compelling history of the American hotel and how it captured the public's imagination as it came to represent the complex-and often contentious-relationship among luxury, economic development, and the ideals of a democratic society. Berger profiles the country's most prestigious hotels, including Boston's 1829 Tremont, San Francisco's world-famous Palace, and Chicago's enormous Stevens. The fascinating stories behind their design, construction, and marketing reveal in rich detail how these buildings became cultural symbols that shaped the urban landscape.
Product Details
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2016
Series
Studies in Industry and Society
Condition
New
Weight
475g
Number of Pages
328
Place of Publication
Baltimore, MD, United States
ISBN
9781421419923
SKU
V9781421419923
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-24
About Molly W. Berger
Molly W. Berger is the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and an instructor of history at Case Western Reserve University. She is the editor of The American Hotel, an award-winning volume in The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts series.
Reviews for Hotel Dreams: Luxury, Technology, and Urban Ambition in America, 1829-1929
A rigorously researched and elegantly written study of the role of the hotel in shaping and embodying ideals of progress, luxury, and technology in a consumer capitalist society. Berger's monograph is a welcome contribution to the growing scholarly literature on the history of hotels in modern America, and is a must-read for scholars of business history, the history of technology, architectural and urban history, and the history of consumer culture.
American Historical Review
[Berger's] nuanced interpretation of technology makes her work so important to design historians... Hotels have served as realms of the fantastic that permit guests to escape the everyday and enter into a world of dreams where service and splendour define new experiences. It is this dream world that Berger successfully evokes in this important book and others should follow her lead by exploring this remarkably rich topic.
Journal of Design History
A salutatory and important book.
Hospitality & Society Journal
A worthwhile addition to the growing scholarly literature on hotels.
Journal of American History
In a relatively compact study, Berger has provided a rich, revealing portrayal of her subject that is likely to remain a basic source for scholars examining the history of the city no less than of the hotel itself for some years to come.
Journal of Social History
Complements and expands on A.K. Sandoval-Strausz's Hotel.
Choice
A very informative and entertaining read.
Past In Review
In this extensively researched and well-written study, Molly W. Berger analyzes the emergence of the American luxury hotel in the antebellum period and its continued development throughout the nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression.
H-Net Reviews
American Historical Review
[Berger's] nuanced interpretation of technology makes her work so important to design historians... Hotels have served as realms of the fantastic that permit guests to escape the everyday and enter into a world of dreams where service and splendour define new experiences. It is this dream world that Berger successfully evokes in this important book and others should follow her lead by exploring this remarkably rich topic.
Journal of Design History
A salutatory and important book.
Hospitality & Society Journal
A worthwhile addition to the growing scholarly literature on hotels.
Journal of American History
In a relatively compact study, Berger has provided a rich, revealing portrayal of her subject that is likely to remain a basic source for scholars examining the history of the city no less than of the hotel itself for some years to come.
Journal of Social History
Complements and expands on A.K. Sandoval-Strausz's Hotel.
Choice
A very informative and entertaining read.
Past In Review
In this extensively researched and well-written study, Molly W. Berger analyzes the emergence of the American luxury hotel in the antebellum period and its continued development throughout the nineteenth century to the onset of the Great Depression.
H-Net Reviews