International Territory: The United Nations, 1945-95 [Hardcover]

Christopher Hitchens (Author), Adam Bartos (Author, Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

For half a century, the United Nations building in New York has been the focus of international inspiration. Its podium has seen petitioners for peace, for independence, for justice. Its murals and statuary express the loftiest ideals. Born of World War II and the struggle against fascism, the UN has been the parent body of many small states, and an arena for the peaceful composition of disputes between the powers. Yet, under its flag, wars have been fought and imperfect compromises brokered. The high language of its universal declarations on human rights and dignities has become cheapened by cynicism. Its servants and institutions have been exposed to decay and corruption. Meanwhile, the filiations of power and alignment which created the world body have been radically altered, while the hierarchy of the UN itself has not. These and other ironies and contradictions are visible in the Headquarters Building on the East River of Manhattan--a building that enshrined the most optimistic elements of modernism in design and symbolized them in function but which was also, from the first, an occasion of dispute between the Rockefellers and Le Corbusier and thus, indirectly, between two conceptions of world order. In a series of photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN's modern architecture, while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The text, by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions. In a striking series of colour photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN's modern architecture while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The accompanying text, written with characteristic wit and acuity by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of Utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Taken between 1989 and 1993, Bartos's color photos of U.N. headquarters capture a building trapped in a 1950s timewarp. So optimistic and modern when first built (Le Corbusier was a member of the Board of Design), it is now a bit worn, much like the its tenant.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Taken between 1989 and 1993, Bartos's color photos of U.N. headquarters capture a building trapped in a 1950s timewarp. So optimistic and modern when first built (Le Corbusier was a member of the Board of Design), it is now a bit worn, much like the its tenant." -- Library Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Verso; 1st UK edition (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859849016
• ISBN-13: 978-1859849019
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,216,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MANHATTAN TOWER, August 19, 2007

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DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: International Territory: The United Nations, 1945-95 (Hardcover)

What a strange book! It is some kind of souvenir or milestone-marker of the UN at its half-centenary date in 1995. It belongs basically in the same category as the coffee-mugs, tiepins, ballpoint pens, lapel badges, ashtrays, caps, brochures, 45rpm LP's and for aught I know underwear that seared the recollection of this historic date into the memory of the world's aspiring multitudes, or at least those of them who had enough spare time and unemployed cash. However it is still apparently selling from new, so one or two words by way of a review or notice may be helpful to someone.

No account is taken in what follows here of the price, because I have no idea how that may influence anyone else. I myself paid pennies for it off a second-hand shelf out of curiosity and I cannot even imagine buying it in any other circumstances. For all that, it genuinely is of interest in this year of the Lord 2007. It is half an essay by Christopher Hitchens and half photographs by Adam Bartos. The photos are obviously highly professional. They record only the buildings of the UN in New York, from within and externally, and human presence is evinced only in the form of two pairs of clothed legs, those male these feminine, in what is apparently a study of the gymnasium, not that one could have told that. For Bartos these images mind him of time and place (like Housman's travellers nearing Hell Gate): for Hitchens they were the inspiration for his musings: for William Eggleston on the back cover they'... look cold and formal. But only at first. Actually they are full of meaning'. For me they are good professional photos. You could be playing a practical joke and tell me any of that lot about meaning and inspiration and I would not know what to believe.

Hitchens is always thoughtful and independent-minded. On this occasion he recognises the unseemliness of any provocative or controversialist tone. His musings may be a little rambling, but on a second reading I decided that that was no bad thing. He takes three chapters. The first is about the early decisions on location and architecture. These issues were political enough in all conscience, but he reserves his explicitly political analysis for the second, saying what are actually some very interesting things but pulling his rhetorical punches much as if he were in church. The last chapter is his predictions, but as these were predictions in 1995 or thereabouts I shall not assess them in 2007 as predictions. Indeed I shall treat myself to a copout and not assess them at all.

It would all have made a good article in the New Yorker or National Geographic. It comes here expensively printed, in hard binding and in `landscape' (as opposed to `portrait') layout so that it will protrude on many bookshelves, as on the one I bought it from which is how I came to notice it. Perhaps all this is as you like it. If so it's available at various prices.