Divided we stand : a biography of New York City's World Trade Center

A perspective on urban culture in the latter part of the 20th century through the lens of the World Trade Center. Publishers Weekly Despite its coy and misleading subtitle, this is a mesmerizing history of how deep-seated struggles over architectural aspirations, economics, city planning and the exigencies of a democracy undergird the New York cityscape. Taking the planning and building of the twin towers of the World Trade Center as a point of departure, Darton treats readers to a smoothly written and provocative study of everything from the potentially utopian nature of cities to the role of the automobile in urban redevelopment, and from the aesthetics and politics of constructing tall structures (including the Eiffel Tower) to a history of the contested development of lower Manhattan. While grounded in the theories of such diverse thinkers as Jane Jacobs, Peter Kropotkin, John Ruskin, Marshall Berman, LeCorbusier and Lewis Mumford, Darton's dramatic narrative never loses sight of the strong personalities and (often unscrupulous) political hardball that reshaped Manhattan. Central figures include such power players as master planner Robert Moses ("who by his own description hacked his way through New York with a meat ax") and investment developer David Rockefeller and his brother, Nelson, the governor of New York State (whom Darton casually compares to gangsters). A professor of media, technology and cultural studies at Hunter College, Darton is best when elucidating the economic interests behind urban renewal and the destruction of neighborhoods that has often ensued in more than 40 years of Manhattan redevelopment, culminating in the building of one of New York's iconic landmarks. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. When the World Trade Towers in New York City were erected at the Hudson's edge, they led the way to a real estate boom that was truly astonishing. Divided We Stand reveals the coming together and eruption of four volatile elements: super-tall buildings, financial speculation, globalization, and terrorism. The Trade Center serves as a potent symbol of the disastrous consequences of undemocratic planning and development. This book is a history of that skyscraping ambition and the impact it had on New York and international life. It is a portrait of a building complex that lives at the convergence point of social and economic realities central not only to New York City but to all industrial cities and suburbs. A meticulously researched historical account based on primary documents, Divided We Stand is a contemporary indictment of the prevailing urban order in the spirit of Jane Jacobs's mid-century classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities . When the World Trade Center was erected at the Hudson Rivers edge, it forever changed the character of the American city. In Divided We Stand , cultural critic Eric Darton chronicles the life of this billion-dollar building, using it as a lens through which to view the broader twentieth-century trend toward urbanized, global culture. Drawing on political and social history, Darton pioneers a new hybrid genre of architectural biography, revealing the convergence of four volatile elements in contemporary urban super tall buildings, financial speculation, globalization, and terrorism. Now with a new introduction and afterword, Divided We Stand remains the definitive work on the birth and life of the World Trade Center. "When the World Trade Center in New York City was erected at the Hudson River's edge, it forever changed the character of the American City. In Divided We Stand Eric Darton chronicles the life of this billion-dollar building, using it as a lens through which to view the broader twentieth century trend toward urbanized, global culture. Drawing on political, social and personal history, Darton pioneers a new, hybrid genre of architectural biography, revealing the convergence of four volatile elements in contemporary urban life: super-tall buildings, financial speculation, globalization and terrorism."--BOOK JACKET. Presents an architectural biography of the World Trade Center and its impact on New York's financial services, real estate, and culture When you're heading downtown to visit the World Trade Center (WTC), you nearly always make a detour through Century 21.