Customer Reviews

World's Fairs and the End of Progress: An Insider's View

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The author is definately very qualified to write this book. He generally keeps the reader engrossed as he creates the backdrop and context for each of the fairs. Unfortunately, he doesnt go very in depth into any particular fair, and the reader is left craving more photos. The author frequently boasts about his extensive collection of memorabilia, but too little is shown. Its enjoyable for a quick read, but if you are interested in more in depth knowledge and imagery, you should investigate one of the more comprehensive books.

Since I am a World's Fair "fanatic" I have read almost everything that I can on the subject. In general, this is an interesting and well researched book. The author has apparently attended most of the expositions that he writes about. However, I must point up three rather glaring errors in the book. In describing the Louisiana World Expo of 1984 he states that the unbuilt symbol tower was supposed to be "80 feet tall,just 150 feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower." Since the Eiffel Tower is actually over 900 feet tall,the New Orleans fair tower would have had to have been at least 800 feet tall.This may have been a typo which the author did not catch in time.The other error states that the US Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair of 1958 was a "large,squat,round concrete block structure." It was indeed large and round, but not squat and not made of concrete blocks.According to the excellent book about Edward Durrell Stone, the architect of the pavilion,the outer walls consisted of large aluminum panels which were latticed in intricate designs so that the interior would be flooded with natural light. I have seen photos of the US Pavilion, and it seems a beautiful and airy structure to me. (In comparison to the Soviet Pavilion, which resembled a large refrigerator!) Thirdly, the Spokane Expo of 1974 was not the first time that the U.S.S.R. exhibited at a U.S. expo. They had a large pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1939. All in all, however, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of World's Fairs.