The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America's Embassies, 2nd Revised Edition - Softcover

Loeffler, Jane C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568989849 ISBN 13: 9781568989846

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010

Synopsis

This acclaimed history of America's overseas embassy-building program is now available in paperback in a revised and expanded edition. Addressing the security concerns posed by embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, Jane C. Loeffler continues her clear and often charged story of how America presents itself abroad, trying to balance an open and welcoming political philosophy with increasing concern for security in a world beset by terrorism. The Architecture of Diplomacy will appeal to anybody interested in American history and the complicated issue ofrepresenting political power through building.

About this title

About the Author

Author Jane C. Loeffler obtained access to original correspondence, drawings, and photographs that have never been published. This title is a must-read for anyone interested in American foreign policy and the intersection of architecture a

Review

"Insightful and meticulously researched, this fascinating history of America's embassy-building program is filled with stories of international intrigue and bureaucratic snarls. Beginning with the the dawn of the Cold War, Loeffler explores the forces and challenges (political, financial, social, symbolic) that affect such projects...Building an embassy is a supremely complicated feat, this book ably shows, one requiring as much diplomacy as design." -- Architectural Record, January, 1999

"Loeffler's book is an indispensable contribution to understanding our current diplomatic problems and an invitation to think seriously about how to solve them." -- American Studies International, February, 1999

"The Architecture of Diplomacy reads like a Washington political thriller..." -- Metropolis, August/September 1998

The Architecture of Diplomacy is a splendidly presented treatise on both subjects. Which is to say diplomacy as well as architecture. Beginning in the 1950s, as new nations came into being across the globe, the United States built new embassies designed as statements of recognition and welcome. Almost invariably, the new countries began as democracies, and our new buildings were intended to express the achievement and accomplishment of American democracy. As much as modernism can do, was done. If many of these buildings now stand as a reproach to existing regimes, so be it. The State Department planners of the 1950s built better than they knew! -- Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Ambassador to India, 1973-75, Honorary Member, AIA

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568989849
• ISBN 13: 9781568989846
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 336