There never was nor ever could be a better fair, and that is the memory I’ve carried since that family vacation brought us to the Queens fairgrounds in 1964. Though I do not remember much, what remains in my heart is a sense of wonder and happiness. Over the years, the memory faded until I took a class on Renaissance Sculpture for my master’s studies. It amazed me that Michelangelo’s Pietà could have ever been shipped to Queens–I began researching and was deeply moved by the story that unfolded.
I wrote
Our Lady of the World's Fair: Bringing Michelangelo's Piet to Queens in 1964
After reading Lawrence Samuel’s book, I wish I could turn back the hands of time and walk the fairgrounds one more time. This is an excellent history of the fair from beginning to end.
I enjoyed Samuel’s beautiful writing style and in-depth coverage of this slice of Americana. His sense of humor made me laugh out loud. I admit, it’s a nostalgic trip, taking us back to a simpler time. Well, it really wasn’t so simple, but that’s how I remember it as a child visiting the best fair ever!
From April 1964 to October 1965, some 52 million people from around the world flocked to the New York World's Fair, an experience that lives on in the memory of many individuals and in America's collective consciousness. Taking a perceptive look back at ""the last of the great world's fairs,"" Samuel offers a vivid portrait of this seminal event and of the cultural climate that surrounded it. He also counters critics' assessments of the fair as the ""ugly duckling"" of global expositions. Opening five months after President Kennedy's assassination, the fair allowed millions to celebrate international fellowship while the conflict…
I was taken back in time reading this account of the World’s Fair along with the cultural and political background Tirella provided. It gave me a broader view of the seismic societal changes that were starting to hit the country.
I also enjoyed another take on the fair–everyone has an opinion, even if it doesn’t necessarily match my own. World’s fairs are cultural Petri dishes, telling us much about the society we live in, and this book proves it.
This New York Times bestseller is a vivid account of the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York City, a spectacle that embodied the innovation, lunacy, hope, and fear of a dramatic twenty-first century decade-and one that pitted Robert Moses vs. Andy Warhol, brought the vision of Walt Disney together with the Merry Pranksters, featured an Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln and real-life LBJ in the midst of the Civil Rights struggle, and featured much, much more. Tomorrow-Land entertains, informs, and illustrates how the 1964-65 World's Fair-inside its gates and just outside its gates-represents the cultural and political pivots taken by New York…
Malcolm Before X is about finding a way to continue moving forward after everything has been taken from you. While in prison, Malcolm Little discovered the power of reading and found a way to transform his character and become a better man. This half-biography focuses on that transformation, especially his…
At first, I was a little miffed with this book since some contributors favored New York’s first World’s Fair in 1939 over the second in 1964. But the fact is, we’ll always prefer the fair we visited when we were children over the fair we visited as an adult, and this book backs this up.
Still, it was good for me to read about the previous fair to better understand the latter fair. I’m not a New Yorker, but I soaked it up.
If I hadn’t read this book, I’d never believe a man like Robert Moses could have ever existed. For all his pros and cons, I liked him. I’m including this book because Caro includes a chapter on Moses and his involvement with both New York’s World’s Fairs and it offers the history behind the fairs. I felt this biography was a little on the ‘con’ side, but I liked Caro’s thoroughness and felt I had a good feel for the man for having read the book.
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro is 'simply one of the best non-fiction books in English of the last forty years' (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times): a riveting and timeless account of power, politics and the city of New York by 'the greatest political biographer of our times' (Sunday Times); chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time and by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Books of the Twentieth Century; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a Sunday Times Bestseller; 'An outright masterpiece' (Evening Standard)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Castle and The Girls of Atomic City comes a new way to look at American history: through the lens of giving thanks.
Author Denise Kiernan tells the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother of five who campaigned…
I didn’t realize that Walt Disney was so involved in the NY World’s Fair–he was everywhere. How I loved “It’s a Small World”–Disney! I’m from Illinois, and even though I don’t remember it, the animatronic of Abe Lincoln–Disney! General Electric’s Progressland–Disney! The Ford ride back to the future–Disney!
It made sense to me then that Disney World was basically an extension of the New York Fair, but I didn’t understand it until I read Kiste’s book.
For the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, the Disney company designed four paviliions, which later they reimagined for Disneyland. In this first volume of a definitive series, historian Andrew Kiste presents the story of the first of these pavilions: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
Two score and fifteen years ago, Walt Disney took an opportunity to bring his unique style of entertainment to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow. Initially using the fair as an opportunity to determine the level of interest in his theme-park attractions with the "more sophisticated tastes" of those east…
My book tells the story of how two of New York's most influential leaders persuaded the Vatican to allow one of the world's greatest works of art to leave Europe for the first and only time.
Driven by different motives, Robert Moses and Francis Cardinal Spellman had the same vision: to display Michelangelo's Pietà masterpiece in the Vatican's pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Castle and The Girls of Atomic City comes a new way to look at American history: through the lens of giving thanks.
Author Denise Kiernan tells the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother of five who campaigned…
This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block. It’s a story of forest and cement, bird cries and taxi horns, theaters and brothels, hotels and factories, gambling dens and gourmet foods.
It’s also the story of high life and low life, immigrants and…
