Fair America

by Robert W. Rydell

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Research

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Robert W. Rydell is professor of history at Montana State University-Bozeman. He is the author of six books, including All the World’s a Fair and World of Fairs, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

[Charlie Newfell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of the major fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries. The last big US fair was in NYC in 1964 and 1965, (the only one I saw as a child, with fleeting memories). Why aren't they a draw anymore? With the explosion of entertainment options, massive theme parks, and expanding travel options the time might just have passed. Interesting insight in the times and what attracted the public.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview and analysis of the history and purpose of world’s fairs in the United States.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compact book on the history of American world's fairs. The text is an introduction to the topic, as it synthesizes other books on the subject and doesn't have a lot of biographical information about the major personalities behind these fairs. The authors say in the prologue that they want to study the fairs as expressions of America's political economy and as attempts at promoting national union. There's less economic content as the book progresses, which is a drawback, but the discussions of racism and gender make for compelling material. The discussions of African American civil rights protests at world's fairs — acts of disunion, in the eyes of the fairs' white organizers — are particularly interesting. The epilogue focuses mainly on the themes of technology and utopianism that world's fairs have promoted. After not discussing political economy for some time, the authors suddenly bring that topic back for the epilogue. The world's fairs were invented to promote capitalism, but given the troubles industry has caused for the environment, future celebrations of progress might not want to dwell on capitalism. Overall, the book is a good start to understanding American world's fairs, but the authors seem confused about what topics they want to highlight.

[Kathryn]

To fuel my obsession with World's Fairs. However, as the authors' thesis has a special focus on the "relationship between American world's fairs and the American political economy since the end of the Civil War" I'm not so sure I'll be captivated. I am looking more for the passion/excitement/thrill/fun/etc. that the fairs held for the atendees and those creative types who put the fairs together with an artistic-expressive, rather than economic, goal in mind.