The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque

by Joseph Harriss

For more than a century, the world's most famous landmark has been scorned,
exalted, analyzed, and even threatened by terrorists. This book chronicles the
full story of the Eiffel Tower and its master builder.

The Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 celebrated the centennial of the
French Revolution. Eiffel's thousand-foot tower was its centerpiece, the tallest
structure ever made by man. Some protested this "metal monster" in Paris, but
the world praised an unprecedented technological feat.
Richly illustrated
with historical photos, the updated 2004 edition gives a fascinating and
informative look at the tower, the genius of its engineer, and the rich
socio-economic context that made it the icon of an age.

Genres: Nonfiction

257 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1975

About the author

After graduation from the University of Notre Dame, Joseph Harriss studied French and international relations at the Sorbonne and Institut d'Études Politiques before joining the Paris bureau of Time magazine. Besides covering French affairs from politics and economics to couture and cuisine, he also reported from Algiers and Brussels and wrote for the magazine in the New York headquarters. Subsequently, he has done articles and columns for a number of publications, such as The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, Smithsonian magazine, and The American Spectator. He lives in Paris.

Reviews

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a recent trip to Paris, I was fortunate to have enough time to see the Eiffel Tower and I realized that I knew almost nothing about the tower or its namesake, so I committed to finding a book and learning more about it. This lead me to The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and The Belle Epoque - what an interesting book it turned out to be. Who knew that Eiffel actually studied chemistry or that he was also awarded the Langley Gold Medal, the most prestigious aviation award at the time for his accomplishments in that arena. He also had an interest in meteorology and compiled several meteorological atlases and is even credited with developing one of the first effective housings for thermometers. All of this is in addition to his outstanding skills in the civil engineering and his contributions in that field. I found this book to be a very entertaining and informative read.

[Juan Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Paris, the Tower, and specially in the life of a great master builder as Gustave Eiffel. Without going into minutiae, it describes the spirit of France at the time of construction.

[John Woodington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been to the Eiffel Tower last year, I figured I'd read this cool book about the tower, which was given to me by my wife as a souvenir from our trip. Harriss does a great job of setting the stage for Eiffel as engineer, and placing the tower in its proper historical context. There are a lot of great old photographs of the tower under construction, and a number of interesting anecdotes surrounding the construction of the tower, and its subsequent reception by the people of Paris and the visitors to Paris for the 1889 World's Fair.

I'll freely admit that I read this book as a means of reliving some nostalgiac memories, but I'll also say that a lot of the earlier parts in the book were quite fascinating and new to me. The latter portions of the book tried set the Eiffel Tower in a modern day context, which didn't work for me, because this book was written over 30 years ago. I hear tell there is an updated second edition from 2008, which might be worth a read for the updated history.

Overall, a book read that kept me entertained for many evenings.

[Elliot Pence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful account of the building of the Eiffel Tower, as well as what the tower meant to the city of paris during the dark times of the years following it's completion. The book also highlights other less known notable projects that Gustave Eiffel worked on that contributed to the advancement of science and industry.

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as research for my novel, My Phantom: The Memoir of Christine Daaé. Eiffel's tower went up a few years after the time period depicted in My Phantom, but the book provided more terrific background on 19th century Paris.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

35 years old, but still a good read on the history of the Eiffel Tower. Good historical photos, and especially good insight into Eiffel, an underappreciated engineer, for his other projects.