Main entry:

Cocks, Catherine, 1967-

Title & Author:

Doing the town : the rise of urban tourism in the United States, 1850-1915 / Catherine Cocks.

Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2001.

Description:

xiii, 287 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-280) and index.
Strangers and Visitors; Or, The Impossibility of Tourism in American Cities, 1830s-1870s -- "Leisure Is the Parent of Mischief" -- "Localities and Objects of Interest" -- Refining Travel: Railroads and Extra-Fare Cars, 1850-1915 -- "Vexations and Annoyances" -- Democratic Luxury -- At Home in the City: First-Class Urban Hotels, 1850-1915 -- "The Tangible Republic" -- Masters and Servants -- "Why Not Visit Chicago": Tour Companies and City Business Organizations, 1870-1915 -- "The Raw and the Cook'd" -- Selling the City -- "An Individuality All Its Own": Tourist City and Tourist Citizens, 1876-1915 -- Urban Personality and the Tourist -- Creating Urban Landscapes -- "The Noble Spectacle": Historical Walking Tours and Ethnic Slumming, 1890s-1915 -- "A Sweet and Stately Epic" -- "A Panopticon of Peep Shows."

Summary:

"Tourists and travelers in the early nineteenth century saw American cities as ugly spaces, lacking the art and history that attracted thousands to the great cities of Europe. By the turn of the century, however, city touring became popular in the United States, and the era saw the rise of elegant hotels, packaged tours, and train travel to cities for vacations that would entertain and edify. This fascinating cultural history, studded with vivid details bringing the experience of Victorian-era travel alive, explores the beginnings of urban tourism, and sets the phenomenon within a larger cultural transformation that encompassed fundamental changes in urban life and national identity."
"Focusing mainly on New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Catherine Cocks describes what it was like to ride on Pullman cars, stay in the grand hotels, and take in the sights of the cities. Her narrative draws on innovative readings of sources such as guidebooks, travel accounts, tourist magazines, and the journalism of the era. She uses this material to elaborate many interesting facets of urban popular culture and to show that the practice of urban tourism was an important element in the erosion of Victorian sensibilities."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Book review (H-Net)
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0520227468 (alk. paper)
9780520227460 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Tourism United States.
Cities and towns United States.
Villes États-Unis.
Cities and towns.
Tourism.
Stadt
Tourismus
Steden.
Toerisme.
United States.
USA.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 218146
Call No.: G155.U6 C5 2001
Status: Available