Status
Call number
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
This book is an original history of a long-neglected yet central creation of modern reality and imagination. Since its origins in the muddy fields of flying machines, the airport has become one of the defining institutions of modern life. In this book, critic 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. He introduces the people who shaped this place: pilots like Charles Lindbergh, architects like Eero Saarinen, politicians like Fiorello La Guardia. He describes the airport's contributions, such as credit cards, and 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.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
The span of this study encompasses – as the epilogue states – the time between Lindberg (well, really the Wrights) and Bin Laden. In that regard it does end rather abruptly with 9/11. This seems an appropriate stopping point but the conclusion doesn’t seem to convincingly anchor the book. At the same time I found the aspect of flight’s social dimensions throughout the years palpable as portrayed within the narrative. There were the obvious initial fears and curiosity which generally gave way to a well-marketed perception of glamour coupled with (to a large degree) acceptance and comfort which eventually gave way to the now predictable sense of burden and malaise that, despite whatever computerized waterfalls and “aerophobia workshops” some airports provide, seem inevitable in the era of stupid shoe bomb attempts and drunks defecating in airplane aisles. (I do wonder if a study would show that the few airports that provide smoking lounges have a dramatically lower rates of passenger aggression than those that simply offer fern gardens and typically fourth-rate public “art”?) I guess, as 9/11 was something of an abrupt conclusion to an age of relative comfort, innocence, or flat-out denial (at least within the US), the seemingly truncated conclusion might be right on target.
My other, less significant critique is directed towards the title. Whereas “Naked Airport” is eye catching, it also implies some type of scandalous exposé or, at the very least, a peeling back of the proverbial onion layers of airport/airline history. I hardly think any of the content was previously classified or unpublished elsewhere, so the title seems a bit misleading. At any rate, this is a fine offering with many merits as a “page-turner.”