{"product_id":"building-the-cold-war-hilton-international-hotels-and-modern-architecture-9780226894201","title":"Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn postwar Europe and the Middle East  Hilton hotels were quite literally \"little Americas.\" For American businessmen and tourists  a Hilton Hotelwith the comfortable familiarity of an English-speaking staff  a restaurant that served cheeseburgers and milkshakes  trans-Atlantic telephone lines  and  most important  air-conditioned modernityoffered a respite from the disturbingly alien. For impoverished local populations  these same features lent the Hilton a utopian aura. The Hilton was a space of luxury and desire  a space that realized  permanently and prominently  the new and powerful presence of the United States.  Building the Cold War examines the architectural means by which the Hilton was written into the urban topographies of the major cities of Europe and the Middle East as an effective representation of the United States. Between 1953 and 1966  Hilton International built sixteen luxury hotels abroad. Often the Hilton was the first significant modern structure in the host city  as well as its finest hotel. The Hiltons introduced a striking visual contrast to the traditional architectural forms of such cities as Istanbul  Cairo  Athens  and Jerusalem  where the impact of its new architecture was amplified by the hotels unprecedented siting and scale. Even in cities familiar with the Modern  the new Hilton often dominated the urban landscape with its height  changing the look of the city. The London Hilton on Park Lane  for example  was the first structure in London that was higher than St. Pauls cathedral.  In his autobiography  Conrad N. Hilton claimed that these hotels were constructed for profit and for political impact: \"an integral part of my dream was to show the countries most exposed to Communism the other side of the cointhe fruits of the free world.\" Exploring everything the carefully drafted contracts for the buildings to the remarkable visual and social impact on their host cities  Wharton offers a theoretically sophisticated critique of one of the Cold Wars first international businesses and demonstrates that the Hiltons role in the struggle against Communism was  as Conrad Hilton declared  significant  though in ways that he could not have imagined.  Many of these postwar Hiltons still flourish. Those who stay in them will learn a great deal about their experience from this new assessment of hotel space.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45666284699701,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226894207","price":61.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226894201.jpg?v=1782426917","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/building-the-cold-war-hilton-international-hotels-and-modern-architecture-9780226894201","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}