Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World's Most Revolutionary Structure

by Alastair Gordon (Author), Alastair Gordon (Author)

New
Illustrated
2008
$20.20

Although airports are now best known for interminable waits at check-in counters, liquid restrictions for carry-on luggage, and humiliating shoe-removal rituals at security, they were once the backdrops for jet-setters who strutted, martinis in hand, through curvilinear terminals designed by Eero Saarinen. In the critically acclaimed Naked Airport, Alastair Gordon traces the cultural history of this defining institution from its origins in muddy fields to its frontline position in the struggle against international terrorism.From global politics to action movies to the daily commute, Gordon shows how the airport has changed our sense of time, distance, and style, and ultimately the way cities are built and business is done. He introduces the people who shaped and were shaped by this place of sudden transition: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Le Corbusier, and political figures like Fiorello LaGuardia and Adolf Hitler. Naked Airport is a profoundly original history of a long-neglected yet central component of modern life.

Synopsis

Although airports are now best known for interminable waits at check-in counters, liquid restrictions for carry-on luggage, and humiliating shoe-removal rituals at security, they were once the backdrops for jet-setters who strutted, martinis in hand, through curvilinear terminals designed by Eero Saarinen. In the critically acclaimed Naked Airport, Alastair Gordon traces the cultural history of this defining institution from its origins in muddy fields to its frontline position in the struggle against international terrorism.From global politics to action movies to the daily commute, Gordon shows how the airport has changed our sense of time, distance, and style, and ultimately the way cities are built and business is done. He introduces the people who shaped and were shaped by this place of sudden transition: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Le Corbusier, and political figures like Fiorello LaGuardia and Adolf Hitler. Naked Airport is a profoundly original history of a long-neglected yet central component of modern life.

$20.20

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 318
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 06 Jun 2008
ISBN 10: 0226304566
ISBN 13: 9780226304564

Media Reviews

This charming history documents why airports have always been such intriguing places. Gordon wittily deconstructs air terminal architecture.... Here is a book with more than enough quirky details to last a long layover. - People [A] splendid cultural history. - Atlantic Monthly Gordon, an architecture and design critic, tells his story well, bringing to life some of the main characters and highlighting some of the important issues concerning urbanism and airports. - Michael Roth, San Francisco Chronicle Gordon provides a truly compelling account of how airports had over the course of three-quarters of a century become the locus of not only modern dreams but postmodern nightmares as well. Don't leave home without it. - Terence Riley, director of the Miami Art Museum The genius of Naked Airport is its portrayal of how these way stations have changed from the muddy airfields of the 1920s to their heyday in the '60s and beyond.... In charting this evolution, Gordon has written the ideal book to bring with you on a long nonstop flight. - Time Out New York [An] interesting, informative book. - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

Author Bio

Alastair Gordon is a critic, curator, and contributing writer to the New York Times and writes regularly for Architectural Digest, Town & Country, and Dwell. He is the author of several books, including Weekend Utopia, Spaced Out, Beach Houses, and Romantic Modernist.