A revelatory behind-the-scenes look at a universally recognized landmark: the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower is widely photographed, visited, and written about, but it holds a wealth of stories that are rarely told. When it was built, the three-hundred-meter structure was the tallest on earth, but it bore little resemblance to the stripped-down, modernized monument that is known and loved today. With Eiffel Tower Confidential, art historian Hollis Clayson makes this familiar landmark strange again, offering expert insight into the life of the Tower. 

Here she traces the creative financing of the Tower before its construction began, shares images made in its early years, and illuminates the role the Tower played in celebrating French Imperialism. She tells the fascinating story of iron ornamentation that helped the Tower win approval as the centerpiece of the 1889 Universal Exposition but was ripped off and discarded in 1937, and she investigates the sinister backstory behind how the dazzling illumination of the Tower—which combined 10,000 gas lights in glass globes, two kinds of electric spotlights placed at the summit, and Bengal flames on the platforms—was designed to function as an instrument of surveillance. 

This extraordinary account takes us into the long shadow of the Eiffel Tower, inviting readers to get to know this acclaimed landmark on an unprecedented level.