Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World's Most Revolutionary StructureThe first full cultural history of the ultimate modern structure: the airport, revealed as never before Since its origins in the muddy fields of flying machines, the airport has arguably become one of the defining institutions of modern life. In Naked Airport, critic Alastair 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. Gordon introduces the people who shaped this place of sudden transition: pilots like Charles Lindberg, architects like Eero Saarinen, politicians like Fiorello La Guardia, and Hitler, who built Berlin’s Tempelhof as a showcase for Fascist power. He describes the airport’s futuristic contributions, such as credit cards, in the form of fly-now-pay-later schemes, and he 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. Compelling and accessible, Naked Airport is an original history of a long-neglected yet central creation of modern reality and imagination. |
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aerial aerodrome air terminal air travel aircraft airfield airline airplane airport design Airways American airports Angeles apron architect Architectural Record Archives arriving aviation baggage became boarding Bourget building built called cars central Chicago companies concourse concrete Corbusier Dalgliesh Delano and Aldrich Eero Saarinen engines Europe European Skyways feet field flew flight flown flying Ford gateway glass ground Guardia hangars Harrison Hugh Ferriss I. M. Pei Ibid Idlewild International Airport Juan Trippe Kennedy kind LaGuardia land landscape Last Tycoon Le Corbusier Lindbergh lines London look lounge mayor Miami miles million modern moving sidewalks Municipal Airport National Norman Bel Geddes OFFICE opened Paris parking passengers pilot plane port Prokosch ramp restaurant roof route runways Saarinen space speed station stewardesses structure style Tempelhof thousand tion traffic Trippe’s United urban Virgilio Marchi Wallace Harrison walls Washington wrote York