{"product_id":"living-downtown-the-history-of-residential-hotels-in-the-united-states-9780520068766","title":"Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the palace hotels of the elite to cheap lodging houses  residential hotels have been an element of American urban life for nearly two hundred years. Since 1870  however  they have been the target of an official war led by people whose concept of home does not include the hotel. Do these residences constitute an essential housing resource  or are they  as charged  a public nuisance?  Living Downtown  the first comprehensive social and cultural history of life in American residential hotels  adds a much-needed historical perspective to this ongoing debate. Creatively combining evidence from biographies  buildings and urban neighborhoods  workplace records  and housing policies  Paul Groth provides a definitive analysis of life in four price-differentiated types of downtown residence. He demonstrates that these hotels have played a valuable socioeconomic role as home to both long-term residents and temporary laborers. Also  the convenience of hotels has made them the residence of choice for a surprising number of Americans  from hobo author Boxcar Bertha to Calvin Coolidge.  Groth examines the social and cultural objections to hotel households and the increasing efforts to eliminate them  which have led to the seemingly irrational destruction of millions of such housing units since 1960. He argues convincingly that these efforts have been a leading contributor to urban homelessness.  This highly original and timely work aims to expand the concept of the American home and to recast accepted notions about the relationships among urban life  architecture  and the public management of residential environments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45921839644725,"sku":"ByrdShop_0520068769","price":479.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780520068766.jpg?v=1787605865","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/living-downtown-the-history-of-residential-hotels-in-the-united-states-9780520068766","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}