Hotel Dreams

<Winner 2012 Sally Hacker Prize Society for the History of TechnologyHotel Dreams is a deeply researched and entertaining account of how the hotel's material world of machines and marble integrated into and shaped the society it served. Molly W. Berger offers a compelling history of the American hotel and how it captured the public's imagination as it came to represent the complex-and often contentious-relationship among luxury economic development and the ideals of a democratic society.Berger profiles the country's most prestigious hotels including Boston's 1829 Tremont San Francisco's world-famous Palace and Chicago's enormous Stevens. The fascinating stories behind their design construction and marketing reveal in rich detail how these buildings became cultural symbols that shaped the urban landscape.