Fair America

Robert W. Rydell

ISBN 10: 1560983841 / ISBN 13: 9781560983842

Published by Soho Press, 2000

About this Item

Since their inception with New York's Crystal Palace Exhibition in the mid-nineteenth century, world's fairs have introduced Americans to %u201Cexotic%u201D pleasures such as belly dancing and the Ferris Wheel; pathbreaking technologies such as telephones and X rays; and futuristic architectural, landscaping, and transportation schemes. Billed by their promoters as %u201Cencyclopedias of civilization,%u201D the expositions impressed tens of millions of fairgoers with model environments and utopian visions. Setting more than 30 world%u2019s fairs from 1853 to 1984 in their historical context, the authors show that the expositions reflected and influenced not only the ideals but also the cultural tensions of their times. As mainstays rather than mere ornaments of American life, world%u2019s fairs created national support for such issues as the social reunification of North and South after the Civil War, U.S. imperial expansion at the turn of the 20th-century, consumer optimism during the Great Depression, and the essential unity of humankind in a nuclear age. Solid binding. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item.

Seller Inventory # 123682384

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fair America
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560983841
• ISBN 13: 9781560983842
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

Since their inception with New York's Crystal Palace Exhibition in the mid-nineteenth century, world's fairs have introduced Americans to “exotic” pleasures such as belly dancing and the Ferris Wheel; pathbreaking technologies such as telephones and X rays; and futuristic architectural, landscaping, and transportation schemes. Billed by their promoters as “encyclopedias of civilization,” the expositions impressed tens of millions of fairgoers with model environments and utopian visions.

Setting more than 30 world’s fairs from 1853 to 1984 in their historical context, the authors show that the expositions reflected and influenced not only the ideals but also the cultural tensions of their times. As mainstays rather than mere ornaments of American life, world’s fairs created national support for such issues as the social reunification of North and South after the Civil War, U.S. imperial expansion at the turn of the 20th-century, consumer optimism during the Great Depression, and the essential unity of humankind in a nuclear age.

About the Author

Robert W. Rydell is a professor of history at Montana State University—and the author of All the World's a Fair (1984) and World of Fairs (1983).

John E. Findling is a professor of history at Indiana University Southeast and the author of Chicago's Great World's Fairs (1994).

Kimberly D. Pelle is an admissions counselor at Indiana University Southeast and coeditor, with John E. Findling, of Historical Dictionary of World's Fairs and Expositions (1990).