Hotel: An American History |
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Hotel: An American History
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by Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz
Sales Rank: 114526
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$19.95
At Amazon
on 6-23-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 384 pages
Published by: Yale University PressEdition: 1st Edition November 28, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0300106165
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0300106169
Book Dimensions:
10.1 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
Weighs: 2.4 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
In this lucid and creative work, Sandoval-Strausz, an assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico, situates the rise of hotels within the history of the triumph of capitalism and of an increasingly mobile society. Hotels, he says, facilitated mobility and the integration of frontier lands into greater networks of capital and commerce. Hotels were also part of the gradual process that dissociated people from particular places. If hotels solved some social problems, Sandoval-Strausz shows, they created others: guardians of domesticity, for example, worried about urban dwellers who picked to live full-time in hotels. In exploring the social and political meaning of hotels, the author pursues countless avenues, from menus to morals (Hotels were magnets for prostitution and other forms of illicit sex). There's a bit of labor history thrown in, too, since, in order to make good on the promise to be patrons' home away from home, hotels employed a huge number of workers, from cooks and launderers to janitors, Sandoval-Strausz also traces hotels' exclusion of Jews and blacks—the book ends with the 1964 Supreme Court case that desegregated public accommodations. From start to finish, this is a fascinating study. 93 color, 58 black and white illus. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Review
"Hotel is a marvelous piece of work. It is lucid, original, gorgeously written, wonderfully illustrated, and historiographically and theoretically sophisticated. It is brimming with fresh insights."—Wendy Gamber, Indiana University
(Wendy Gamber )
"In Hotel: An American History, A.K. Sandoval-Strausz presents a highly creative history of the nineteenth-century first-class hotel, and develops important and stimulating interpretations of what hotels have meant to American business, culture, and racial politics."--Paul Groth, University of California, Berkeley
(Paul Groth )
“This is an essential history of one of the nation’s most significant building types. A.K. Sandoval-Strausz deftly sets hotels at the center of the nation’s social history, urban development, and political consciousness.”—Dell Upton, author of Architecture in the United States
(Dell Upton )
“Professor Sandoval-Strausz’s cultural history of the hotel in America is like getting the best suite in the house: magnificent views, elegant details, and fine finishes. Writing as an historian, he integrates architecture, urban geography, and social history to illuminate the influence of hotel development and tourism on our country’s development.”—Richard Penner, Cornell School of Hotel Administration (Richard Penner )
“Once upon a time, hotels were simply way-stations where weary travelers could stop to rest along a journey that could take many days. But over the centuries, hotels evolved into the symbols of American capitalism and of urban life. The biggest and best of them provided glamour, sophistication, elegance, and excitement, and A. K. Sandoval-Strausz has now given them the recognition they deserve. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, Hotel will reward both the specialist and the general reader.”—Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University (Kenneth T. Jackson )
Reader Reviews
While this comprehensive history of the American hotel surely will become required reading for students in hospitality programs, it is not the sort of history of hotel management and technology that one might expect of a text book in this field. Rather, this seems to be the "American Studies" genre, primarily concerned with viewing the hotel as a phenomenon in a larger cultural context of the place and times. While more attention to management practices and technology might have enriched the book, it serves a sufficient purpose as cultural history. The author clearly has done much homework, searching local newspapers across the nation for anacdotes about hotels. Naturally, what was reported was not behind-the-scenes hotel operation, but what would interest the public--the "front of the house" events. All of us who have favorite historic hotels and their histories will regret that much has been missed, but considering the vast scope of his subject, the author has done a superb job.
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Hotel: An American History
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Price: $19.95
Updated on 6-23-2008.
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