Celebrating the New World: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893 (American Ways) - Softcover

Muccigrosso, Robert Dr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566630142 ISBN 13: 9781566630146

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 1993

Synopsis

By the turn of the nineteenth century America was coming of age. No event better illustrated the American rise, better mirrored American society, or better presaged the American century ahead than the World's Columbian Exposition. "The grandest exposition this planet has ever witnessed" has been captured by Robert Muccigrosso in this lively survey of the Great Fair and its reflection of American values and tastes. With exhibits and visitors from all parts of the globe, the Columbian Exposition allowed America to consider its past, examine its present, and ponder its future. The nation's most celebrated architects overcame formidable obstacles to showcase science, technology, and the arts, and to provide a meeting place for assorted congresses. But the exposition was also an entertainment for the 27 million (a remarkable figure for 1893) who came to see the great event staged in that most fascinating city of wealth, culture, and corruption, Chicago. With photographs and maps. American Ways Series.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

It was the most astonishing fair ever. "The grandest exposition this planet has ever witnessed", wrote one observer of the Columbian Exposition. A spectacular neoclassical "White City" designed by the nation's leading architects under the direction of Daniel Burnham; innumerable exhibits of science, technology, and the arts from throughout the world; a meeting place for a remarkable variety of social, intellectual, and religious groups; and a Midway of sometimes up-lifting, sometimes exotic attractions - all staged in that boisterous and fascinating city of wealth, culture, and corruption, Chicago. No fair since has so captured the imagination of the American people - indeed, people throughout the world. More than 27 million visitors (an extraordinary figure for 1893) came to see the great Chicago World's Fair, and it entertained them enormously. Its legacies - to literature, music, architecture, and city planning, among many fields - were notable. But the Columbian Exposition was also a telling portrait of American society at the turn of the nineteenth century. No event better illustrated the American rise to world power, better reflected American tastes and values, or better presaged the American Century to come. Robert Muccigrosso explores the history, substance, and larger meaning of the fair in this lively survey.

About the Author:

Robert Muccigrosso is professor of history at Brooklyn College and at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. He has also written American Gothic and is co-author of America in the Twentieth Century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1566630142
• ISBN 13: 9781566630146
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224