Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center [Hardcover]

Angus Kress Gillespie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

This is a unique history that covers the complete life of the Twin Towers: the sky-high hopes during their planning and construction, the years during which they stood at the pinnacle of the Manhattan skyline, their symbolic meaning to the city, the nation, and the world-and, in a new chapter written for this edition, their heartbreaking demise on September 11, 2001.

The New York Times bestseller -now with photographs and a new updated chapter.

"Well-researched...gives us a sense of the historical richness and complexity of what we have lost." (New York Times)

"Brilliant." (Larry King )

"[A] thread to grasp as we unravel the meaning of the World Trade Center in history, and in myth." (Boston Herald)

"An absorbing account incorporating personal interviews and observation, exuding enthusiasm and empathy." (Library Journal )

"Offers a fascinating section on the engineering challenges faced by [architect] Yamasaki and the Port Authority project managers." (The Wall Street Journal)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Among the most widely recognized of human-made structures, New York City's World Trade Center is both beloved for its photogenic skyline presence and vilified for symbolizing bloated bureaucracy and heartless modernism. These two books comprise initial attempts to flesh out the WTC's history, appraise its place in 20th-century architecture, and judge its success as urban design and economic planning. Neither author is an authority on architecture, city planning, politics, or economics, and both treat the WTC itself as a backdrop to the political maneuvering that made its creation possible. Gillespie (American studies, Rutgers) pens an absorbing account incorporating personal interviews and observations, exuding enthusiasm and empathy. In striking contrast, Darton's (cultural studies, Hunter Coll.) study brims with irony, invective, and irrelevant digressions. Where Gillespie sees the New York Port Authority, the WTC's parent, as a powerful agency struggling to fulfill its mandate to facilitate transport and commerce, Darton sees the undiluted evil of unaccountable government officials in pursuit of ignoble ends. The same events are given diametrically opposed interpretations, and a few facts appear to be in dispute. Gillespie examines the tower's planning and construction in far more depth, but both he and Darton take the same superficial approach as Tom Wolfe in From Bauhaus to Our House. For now, architecture librarians will remain better served by Anthony Robin's The World Trade Center (1987). Large urban planning collections, however, may want to add both Twin Towers and Divided We Stand as a lesson in contrasting interpretation.
-David Solt?sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Twin Towers is a richly textured study of an important American icon that symbolizes the intertwining of capitalism and government entrepreneurship in the United States. A nicely crafted study, certain to be of interest to students of American politics and culture, and to engineers and architects." -- Jameson W. Doig, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813527422
• ISBN-13: 978-0813527420
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book, but not what I expected, October 5, 2001

By 

A NJ Reader (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center (Hardcover)

I thought this book would have had more pictures of the construction of the towers and also some pictures of the finished towers. I wanted it as a keepsake since the Towers are now gone. however there are no pictures and only about 7 illustrations. (cross-sectional diagram, map of layout, etc)

It does contain an interesting background to the building of the Towers that is quite an interesting read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where are the photos, November 5, 2001

By 

CattO (Cali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center (Hardcover)

Having worked at One World Trade from 1985-1987 and being a native New Yorker, I ordered this book thinking I would at least get a better understanding on the construction of the towers with photos to document the history. Unfortunately those photos do not exist in this book. There a few diagrams, but no photos worth while in the book. So if you're looking for a basic understanding and would like to see the building of the towers(via photos)and to see the "city within a city" that it was, this isn't the book.

52 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twin Towers is a must read!, December 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center (Hardcover)

As the Statue of Liberty is known around the world as the symbol of America and freedom, the Twin Towers are recognized around the world as the symbol of America and power. Angus Gillespie's "Twin Towers" sneaks the reader past security to see what it really took to create these modern day monuments to human greatness. The book also lets the reader peer through the eyes of the myriad of different people who work in the building, maintain the building, and even those who try to destroy the building. Simply fascinating!