Main entry:

Gelernter, David Hillel, author.

Title & Author:

1939, the lost world of the Fair / David Gelernter.

Publication:

New York : Free Press, [1995]
©1995

Description:

xii, 418 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Notes:
Map of 1939 New York world's fair on endpapers.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-405) and index.
1. Prologue : the center of time -- 2. Into the fair -- 3. Color coded -- 4. The necktie -- 5. The monkey godess -- 6. Doughnuts -- 7. Haven't we met somewhere before? -- 8. Party -- 9. Choosing Ford -- 10. Technology : gorgeous -- 11. Flight in space -- 12. Playgrounds -- 13. His own words -- 14. Dynamite, Manhattan, 1939 -- 15. Technology : frightening -- 16. When life turns out to be a sand castle -- 17. Technology : good -- 18. The art of the microcosm -- 19. Robot! -- 20. The landscape and its sanctity -- 21. Sudden dark -- 22. Obsession -- 23. At last -- 24. Parachute jump -- 25. Late afternoon -- 26. Unfinished business -- 27. The voice of the Perisphere -- 28. Epilogue : here in utopia.
Wittliff Collections copy is a gift from Cormac McCarthy's personal library by Dennis McCarthy, 2025

Summary:

In 1939, exhausted by a decade-long depression, Americans faced a brewing European conflict that would prove to be the most destructive in world history. At this dark juncture, a World's Fair was held in New York City that evoked such acute hope in its promise of a glorious future that a whole generation was drawn to it and transformed by its vision. People came from all over the world to see the fair, and it was not uncommon for many to attend ten, twenty, even thirty times. There, the awed spectators gazed at a utopian world of superhighways, spacious suburbs and other technological wonders. As David Gelernter recounts, it was a future that has largely come to pass, but one that, in its realization, has drained us of the very pride and hope that were so palpable at the fair itself.
Recreates the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of the New York World's Fair in 1939, highlighting its importance to a country reviving from the Great Depression and preparing for World War II.

ISBN:

0028740025
9780028740027

Subject:

New York World's Fair (1939-1940) History.
New York <NY> / Weltausstellung <1939>
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.) History.
New York World's Fair
World's Fair 1939-1940 New York, NY
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)
Exposition universelle (1939-1940 : New York)
Exhibitions.
Exhibitions as Topic
Expositions.
exhibitions (events)
Wereldtentoonstellingen.
Technische ontwikkeling.
Marketing channels

Form/genre:

Histories.
History
Books.

Added entries:

Cormac McCarthy Library (Wittliff Collections (Texas State University))

Holdings:

Location: Library main 155355
Call No.: T785.B1 G4 1995
Status: Available