Customer Reviews

The End of the Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The End of the Innocence is most interesting in that it tells about what was almost two completely separate World's Fairs. There was the fair the visitors (including myself as a child) experienced, and the fair as experienced by the investors and critics. And it seems that the visitors had a much better time of it! Lawrence Samuel breaks the book into two sections: planning/execution and the fair experience, which works out to map pretty well to the two perspectives described above; a very reasonable and understandable way to handle the material.

The detail provided is remarkable; the book is researched incredibly well. I'm surprised that this much material was available. After reading it, I recommend purchasing any of the several DVDs available of films made for the fair; the book provides some excellent background for appreciating and enjoying this sort of material even more than one otherwise might

One minor negative note - Samuel seems to have an anti-commerce, pro-unrest bias and this shows in his writing. Robert Moses successfully created an oasis of peace and plenty in what was rapidly becoming the tumult of the '60s; Samuel implies in the book that this was fraudulent on a fundamental level. I don't agree. If *you* agree, add a star to my rating.

The first half of the book explains the birth and idea to even think about initiating another world's fair in N.Y. Seeing at that time frame, that the 1939 N.Y. fair was only 20 years old. The second half gets into the actual fair exhibits and the trials and tribulations behind the scenes.
The best book I've read on the nuts & bolts of the 64-65 World's Fair. A wealth of facts backed up by foot notes. The author does a great job organizing this detail into a more or less chronological order that makes it enjoyable to read and understand.
Although there is a lot of trivia relating to individual exhibits, if you are looking for mechanical detail such as animatronics and stories behind the actual designers and workers of the great exhibits and what they did to make things work. This book may not be the right one. But since there is so little written on the 60's N.Y. World's Fair, This book has answered many of the questions I had about it, both trivia wise and politically.

With extensive footnotes, an extended bibliography, and occasionally illustrated with historic black-and-white photography, "The End Of The Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair" by Lawrence R. Samuel is a descriptive analysis of the New York World's Fair that ran from April 1964 to October 1965 and was attended by approximately fifty-two million people. A seminal event of its decade, and reflective of the cultural climate in which it occurred, this World's Fair had a powerful and enduring impact on the nation which was, for the overwhelming majority of its visitors, was consistently positive, often inspirational, and occasionally transcendent. Held just five months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the World Fair was held in a time of turbulence that included American participation in the Vietnam War and an emerging counter-culture among the youth. But the Fair showcased the postwar American dream of an optimistic future. A work of meticulous scholarship combined with Samuel's narrative skill as a writer, "The End Of The Innocence" is especially recommended to the attention of students of American popular culture, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in 20th Century American history.

This is an outstanding account of the 1964 -65 NY world's fair and it's impact on not only the Greater New York area but the nation as well. I live close to the fairgrounds and never get tired of seeing the unisphere and well as the NYC diorama at the Queens Museum of Art also on the fairgrounds.

This book is an excellent retrospectiv of the '64-65 World's Fair. It maintains a positive tone and opinion of the fair itself without ignoring the social changes occuring at the time or the financial and political mismanagement happening behind the scenes. If you're looking for detailed description of the fair, grounds, pavillions, and sights/sounds/experiences, skip straight to the second half of the book. The first half deals almost entirely with the management of the fair's finances as well as the politics involved. The first half does, however, address in more detail the contrast of the fair's idealized America compared to the social change taking place outside of Flushing Meadows. This is one of the few books that dives deeper into all aspects of the '64-65 fair where others simply write it off as an assault by corporate America masked as a world's fair.

This is another very welcome entry into the growing body of books about World's Fairs (a.k.a. Expo's) which goes well beyond the picture books which, with a few notable exceptions, were all that was readily available to anyone interested in the fascinating history of these megaevents. While there are a few photos to illustrate key points, the real pleasure in reading this work is in getting the big picture on the machinations involved in the organization, finance and operation of the event and then "drilling down" into the details of the visitor experience including exhibits, food, and entertainment (or the lack thereof, as the book discusses). As a visitor to this event, I have vivid memories of many of the experiences I had at the Fair, including Belgian Waffles (which, it turns out, were invented in Queens, or so the author contends). This wonderful novelty food delighted another very large crowd recently at the biggest Expo in history, Shanghai's Expo 2010.

If you are a fan of World's Fairs or New York City history, this book will be rewarding. It is very well researched and comprehensive. It contains fascinating details and anecdotes. If you are looking for an intriguing narrative (as attempted in "Twilight at the World of Tomorrow" by James Mauro) this might not be to your liking. There is no overarching drama, this is more of a text book or research piece. The book is not very well organized and the writing style is at times awkward. The author could not decide between organizing the book chronologically or topically and so does both, leading to duplication and redundancy. Certain phrases and catch words, such as "whopping", are used excessively and can become annoying.