Naked airport
Subtitle: a cultural history of the world's most revolutionary structure
By: Alastair Gordon.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: H. Holt; Metropolitan Books, H. Holt
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 305
ISBN-13: 9780805065183
Subjects: Airports -- History
Description: This book is an original history of a long-neglected yet central creation of modern reality and imagination. Since its origins in the muddy fields of flying machines, the airport has become one of the defining institutions of modern life. In this book, critic Gordon ranges from global geopolitics to action movies to the daily commute, showing how airports have changed our sense of time, distance, style, and even the way cities are built and business is done. He introduces the people who shaped this place: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Eero Saarinen, politicians like Fiorello La Guardia. He describes the airport's contributions, such as credit cards, and charts its shift in popular perception, from glamorous to infuriating. Finally, he analyzes the airport's function in war and peace--its gatekeeper role controlling immigration, its appeal to revolutionaries since the hijackings of the 1960s, and its new frontline position in the struggle against terror.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-289) and index.