Berger presents an engaging history of the American luxury hotel, arguing for it as a microcosm of the evolving social, cultural, economic, and technological trends of the 19th century. Describing the luxury hotel as a city within a city, she points to the lessons in race, gender, class, material culture, technological progress and capitalism to be seen in the development and working of such an establishment. Berger traces the evolution of lodgings in the early 19th century from inns and taverns to basic hotels to luxury accommodations, and the attendant developments in financing, technology and logistics required to build these enterprises; describes their proliferation in the mid 19th century and the advances involved with the delivery of increasingly modern conveniences; and details the reciprocal effects on production and consumption both inside the hotel and in American society at large. Biographical sketches of representative hotels in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York and Chicago illustrate each era of expansion and advancement. This is a paperback reprint of the 2011 clothbound edition. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)