Hilton’s America: Hospitality as Foreign Policy after World War II

In the aftermath of the Second World War, hotelier Conrad Hilton rose to new success and fame. Having barely survived the Depression, he profited off of increased wartime mobility and post-war real estate bargains to establish his company as the standard bearer of American hospitality. As part of this rise, Hilton also deliberately established himself as a global spokesperson for capitalism and Christianity and public enemy of communism. Hilton’s hotels at home and abroad courted loyalty that was not merely economic but also ideological. His vision was of corporate hospitality as a bulwark against anti-capitalist forces. This paper explores the relationship between Hilton’s personal politics and his corporate construction of a uniquely American brand of welcome in which guests remained cocooned in American business practices, standards of comfort and even cuisine no matter where on earth they happened to be.