19th century american cities
19th century american history
A01=Catherine Cocks
american cities
Author_Catherine Cocks
Category=JBSD
Category=KNSG
Category=NHTB
Category=WT
chicago
city touring
cultural history
cultural studies
cultural transformation
elegant hotels
entertainment
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
eq_travel
guidebooks
journalism
national identity
new york city
packaged tours
san francisco
sociology
taking in the sights
tourism
tourist magazines
train travel
travel
travel accounts
travelers
united states of america
urban areas
urban development
urban life
urban tourism
vacations
washington dc
Product details
- ISBN 9780520227460
- Weight: 635g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 19 Sep 2001
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Tourists and travelers in the early nineteenth century saw American cities as ugly spaces, lacking the art and history that attracted thousands to the great cities of Europe. By the turn of the century, however, city touring became popular in the United States, and the era saw the rise of elegant hotels, packaged tours, and train travel to cities for vacations that would entertain and edify. This fascinating cultural history, studded with vivid details bringing the experience of Victorian-era travel alive, explores the beginnings of urban tourism, and sets the phenomenon within a larger cultural transformation that encompassed fundamental changes in urban life and national identity. Focusing mainly on New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Catherine Cocks describes what it was like to ride on Pullman cars, stay in the grand hotels, and take in the sights of the cities. Her evocative narrative draws on innovative readings of sources such as guidebooks, travel accounts, tourist magazines, and the journalism of the era.
Exploring the full cultural context in which city touring became popular, Cocks ties together many themes in urban and cultural history for the first time, such as the relationships among class, gender, leisure, and the uses and perceptions of urban space. Offering especially lively reading, Doing the Town provides a memorable journey into the experience of the new urban tourist at the same time as it makes a sophisticated contribution to our understanding of the urban and cultural development of the United States.
Catherine Cocks is an independent scholar who received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.
