The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque Revised Edition
Author(s): Joseph Harriss (Author)
Publisher: Unlimited Publishing LLC
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Edition: Revised
Language: English
Print length: 212 pages
ISBN-10: 1588321029
ISBN-13: 9781588321022
Book Description
The Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 celebrated France’s recovery from the humiliating defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, and Gustave Eiffel’s thousand-foot tower represented the glory of that achievement. But the iron tower was a stunning accomplishment in its own right, the tallest structure made by man.The story of the Eiffel Tower is also that of a master builder of the industrializing nineteenth century. Wielding iron in new ways, Eiffel scattered his creations around the globe–train stations and vaulting bridges in Europe, South America, and Indochina, the interior bracing of the Statue of Liberty in the United States. At the peak of his career he easily won the contract to design the audacious monument that came to symbolize not only Paris but a rare moment in history.Over the years the tower has been scorned, exalted, analyzed by philosophers for hidden meaning, and seized upon by eccentrics for bizarre stunts. Exuberant culmination of the nineteenth century’s unreserved enthusiasm for machines, the Eiffel Tower remains the world’s most famous landmark.
Editorial Reviews
Review
A comprehensive account of the man who designed and built the tower… The book is written with wit and charm. — Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1975
An interesting story interestingly told, and as such it is welcome offers a particularly clear description of Eiffel’s engineering principles. —
The New York Times, May 24, 1975
Certainly the best biography of a building and the cultural climate which spawned it we’ve read in a long time. —
Kirkus Reviews, April 11, 1975
Harriss succeeds admirably… This is a well-organized, exceptionally readable book; entertaining, informative, and highly recommended. —
Library Journal, July 1975
This volume is a delightful illustrated social history of the tower… so intricately twined with contemporary history. —
Scientific American, september 1975
From the Author
One evening I took a random stroll on the Champ de Mars, not far from my home in Paris. After walking for a while, I found myself beneath the Eiffel Tower and glanced up. Above me the colossal, intricate, overarching tracery of crisscrossing girders soared more majestically than the columns of any gothic cathedral. Although I had looked at the tower countless times during my years as a Paris-based journalist, this time I really saw it. I was held, fascinated, awe-struck. I decided to find out more about this odd, captivating structure. I learned that the tower was not merely a fairground gimmick, but the all-but-inevitable outgrowth of an era, in some ways the epitome of an age.
This age, the Belle Epoque, was the age that, with a remarkable sense of itself, created the Eiffel Tower. A synthesis of technology and mood, this bizarre construction was a compendium of engineering methods and materials developed during the first century of the Industrial Revolution. It was also, it seems to me, the most expressive statement of how one part of the human race felt about itself at a pivotal point in its history.
About the Author
Joseph Harriss has had an international career as reporter, writer, and editor. After post-graduate studies in Paris at the Sorbonne and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, he served as a correspondent for Time magazine based in Paris, Algiers, and Brussels; a roving editor for Reader’s Digest covering Western Europe; and a foreign affairs columnist for the editorial page of The Dallas Morning News. His articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, from The New York Times and The New Republic to Smithsonian magazine. He lives in Paris.
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