Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America

by Joseph Tirella

Motivated by potentially turning Flushing Meadows, literally a land of refuse, into his greatest public park, Robert Moses—New York's "Master Builder"—brought the World's Fair to the Big Apple for 1964 and '65. Though considered a financial failure, the 1964-65 World' s Fair was a Sixties flashpoint in areas from politics to pop culture, technology to urban planning, and civil rights to violent crime.

In an epic narrative, the New York Times bestseller Tomorrow-Land shows the astonishing pivots taken by New York City, America, and the world during the Fair. It fetched Disney's empire from California and Michelangelo's La Pieta from Europe; and displayed flickers of innovation from Ford, GM, and NASA—from undersea and outerspace colonies to personal computers. It housed the controversial work of Warhol (until Governor Rockefeller had it removed); and lured Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Meanwhile, the Fair—and its house band, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians—sat in the musical shadows of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, who changed rock-and-roll right there in Queens. And as Southern civil rights efforts turned deadly, and violent protests also occurred in and around the Fair, Harlem-based Malcolm X predicted a frightening future of inner-city racial conflict.

World's Fairs have always been collisions of eras, cultures, nations, technologies, ideas, and art. But the trippy, turbulent, Technicolor, Disney, corporate, and often misguided 1964-65 Fair was truly exceptional.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, New York, Audiobook, Americana, Historical, Politics

373 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Kressel Housman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up a few miles away from Flushing Meadow Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, so I picked up this book just for a little Queens history. It turned out to be much more than that; it was one of the best retrospectives on the Sixties I’ve ever read. The reason it was so effective was that it wasn’t about just one thing – not just the music or just the activism or just the hippies, but everything together, including the very commercialized message the “silent majority” got at the Fair. And since the book was set from 1963 through 1965, the issues were just coming to a boil, but not full blown like they were in 1968.

The first few chapters were about builder Robert Moses’ politicking to get the fair running. Those took a little effort to get through, like a good, informative history book. By the time I reached the Beatles’ American debut, though, two months before the fair’s opening, I didn’t want to put the book down. But the most exciting part of all was about the civil rights movement. To protest discriminatory labor practices at the fair, the Brooklyn chapter of CORE attempted to organize a “stall-in,” i.e., a huge traffic jam on the fair’s opening day. James Farmer, Jr., the national head of CORE, opposed that tactic and instead made a separate protest within the fairgrounds. The author calls it “the best forgotten story of the civil rights movement,” and his enthusiasm comes through in his depiction of the events. As I said, it was the most exciting part of the book.

If you’re interested in the Sixties, you’ll enjoy this book. Such diverse figures as Walt Disney, Malcolm X, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Ken Kesey all make an appearance. Queens natives, (like the author himself) will have the added boon of reading about familiar sites in the old neighborhood. Overall, the book is an excellent blend of education and entertainment. I highly recommend it.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the fall of 1964 I journeyed to New York's Flushing Meadow with my Philadelphia Germantown High School classmates to see the World's Fair. That was more than 50 years ago! I was hoping this book would refresh my memory and bring some of the exhibits back to life. A few memories stirred: riding past Michelangelo's La Pieta on a conveyor belt with hundreds of other fairgoers, seeing Disney's lifelike Audio-Animatronics figures that moved and spoke like Abraham Lincoln. Mostly, this book delves into what was happening in the world outside of the fair such as the civil rights movement, the rise of black nationalism, New York City's descent into lawlessness, our country's growing involvement in the war in Vietnam, and the advent of Beatlemania. All interesting topics, to be sure, but I wanted to read more about the Fair itself in hopes of recalling some long ago adventures shared with my high school classmates.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, another book about a World's Fair (having just finished one about the Pan American Expo in 1900). This book is not really about the fair itself as much as it is about the pivotal years 1964/1965 and how all the controversies over civil rights and skyrocketing crime rates gave Robert Moses apoplexy (and in retrospect it was the dividing line between the milquetoast Eisenhower era and full technicolor psychosis).

The problems started on day one. A micromanager with a Napoleon complex, Moses went into fits when black activists decided to hold a "Stall In" (consisting of thousands of people who would conveniently run out of gas on any one of the major roadways leading to the fair on opening day). Although it never actually happened, the day was marred by protesters heckling LBJ.

The New York press also had a field day defying Moses' edicts that they write only good things about the event. There was a controversy over what kind of art was deemed suitable (Andy Warhol's "13 Most Wanted Men in America" mural was ultimately painted over because it enhanced New York's image as a crime ridden Hell hole). Just before the fair opened, sensationalized coverage of the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens was in full swing, making those in middle America afraid to visit (the fact that 38 people watched her being murdered without one of them calling the police was considered shocking at the time). Then there was the tit for tat squabbling between the Jordan and Israel Pavilions which garnered even more bad press (and the very ill advised attempt by the city to rid Greenwich Village of gay people so that tourists would not be shocked).

One thing I did not know was that Moses (who is referred to throughout the book as "The Master Builder") was initially against the idea of the Beatles playing the fair. He quite incorrectly thought that young people might instead prefer to hear Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians. You can't make this stuff up. I never thought of the historic Shea Stadium show as being part of the World's Fair, but it was.

And what was the legacy? The Belgian Waffle and "It's a Small World After All." You can also still see the Unisphere, The Rocket, and the remains of the Pavilion in Flushing Meadow park. One thing's for sure, people today remember it as a happy event and not the one depicted here as beset by controversy. (Probably because those who experienced it had yet to live through 1977 which would of course make 1964 look like Eden).

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Worlds Fair, held in 1963-65 in New York, is the platform on which author Tirella investigates a few interesting aspects of the times. The author describes the creation and building of the fair, focusing on Robert Moses, and telling his story as a political builder. The author then tells of civil rights fights around CORE, the state of art through Andy Warhol, pop music through Bob Dylan, and the up and coming counterculture with anecdotes about Ken Kesey. The author did a good job mixing these disparate parts to illustrate the times. My interests tend to business history, and I found the stories involving Walt Disney’s participation in the creation of rides and attractions for the fair were very interesting, as were Moses machinations to build the fair with participation with many corporate and government entities funding. It comes across as a great sales job that, in the end, doesn’t make the money but leaves behind a great legacy of parks infrastructure and Disney attractions we still visit today.

[Viridian5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the midst of Robert Moses creating a 1964-65 World's Fair showing a Tomorrow-Land, with the idea of using the no doubt massive profits to turn Flushing Meadows Corona Park into the crown jewel of his park system, the US was changing faster and in ways he didn't expect or often acknowledge. It was a financial failure, partly from race riots, skyrocketing crime, changing tastes, culture wars, etc. but also from his mismanagement and willful cluelessness. Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America is the story of those changes and Robert Moses.

I would've liked more information and photos about the actual Fair since I live near Flushing Meadows Corona Park and I'm curious about what the World's Fair was like, but that's not really what Joseph Tirella is interested in, though he does resurrect some forgotten history and racial conflict surrounding it. Mainly this book is about when the '60s started turning into what we think of as the '60s, with some history of "Master Builder" Robert Moses on the side. (How did people possibly let him get so ridiculously powerful? Unelected, he nonetheless reigned in new York City for decades, a city "master builder" who seemed to hate cities, cramming his idea of what public projects should be down the city's throat, displacing at least tens of thousands of people from their homes and jobs without any compensation, destroying neighborhoods, ramming highways through anywhere he felt like, bulldozing "slum" neighborhoods to replace them with isolated brutal slab buildings, etc. I appreciate him turning a sludge heap into Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but he ruined a lot of people's lives.)

With the bombings, assassinations, Vietnam, rising crime, race riots, horrible things being done to people of color, what this book succeeds at best is making me very glad I wasn't alive in the 1960s. And amidst all this heavy stuff, the sections about the Beatles and Bob Dylan felt too light and far less interesting.

I also would've appreciated the book following up on what happened to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which Moses had intended to be his crown jewel. Yeah, the profits he wanted for the park never materialized from the Fair, but New York City hasn't just neglected the park in decades since but treated it with outright malice, like ripping out the Sky Streaks' elevator cars and leaving them in a meadow to the elements to rust and fall apart. The New York State Pavilion has been very visibly and embarrassingly crumbling and rusting forever--three highways intersect the area, enabling tons of people to see it daily--and city politicians keep chipping off sections of the park's land to give to developers in sweetheart deals. What happened?

[Joseph Bowers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very enlightening.I thought this book was going to be about the behind the scenes machinations that went on in building the NY World's Fair of 1964-65 and it basically being a plot by Robert Moses to build a park in Flushing Meadows, (similar to Devil in The White City about the Chicago World's FAIR only without the serial killer) Turned out I was wrong. It really dealt with all the things the country was going through at that turbulent time in American History while the Fair was being developed. Being 10-12 years old at the time, I was blissfully unaware of most of it. I did hear things from time to time but since they didn't effect me, I went on with my pre-teen life. I think I was unaware that all this turmoil was happening at the same time. The riots in Harlem, The Freedom Riders in the South, the Kennedy assassination, the escalation of the War in Vietnam, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the arrival of the Beatles, the rising popularity of Bob Dylan and protest singers. My goodness. My family went to the World's Fair and to me it was a summer vacation and the place where I met Margie, where a few minute encounter at the Parker Pen Pavillion, netted me my maid of honor 12 years later and a friend for going on 60 years. Oh, and a plastic dinosaur at the Sinclair Oil exhibit which I still have. Remember, I was 12.

[Becky Loader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting discussion of the mid-1960s in America.

[Alastair Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written account of Robert Moses' blustery history and race relations in the 1960s. I was hoping for more detail of how one puts on a world's fair, but the book is compelling without that angle. Leans heavily on Bill Cotter's history of the world's fair, which satisfies my initial interest, and goes on to teach me a few things.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tomorrow-Land" by Joseph Tirella could just as easily been titled "Robert Moses' Fantasy-Land" as every chapter seems to come back to him even when the subject is the Beatles or the struggle for civil rights. However, since the World's Fair was his idea and he was going to make it happen no matter who or what stood in the way, Moses' dominance throughout the story is justified.

This was an absorbing read. Though I would be hard pressed to say what information, if any, was new to me. Using the World's Fair as a mirror of the times is unique and intriguing. The next time I'm in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park I'll be seeing it with new eyes, looking for leftover landmarks (other than the obvious Unisphere, Pavillion, etc.). Recommended for fans of the 1960's, New York and World's Fairs/Expositions.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this review of the world’s fair. A hodgepodge of trivia, mostly about Robert Moses. I found it interesting, and very funny at times.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly don't know how to rate this book. Objectively speaking, the book is about much more than the world's fair. It is about America on the verge of exponential change. Unfortunately, I wanted a book that was mostly about the worlds fair. I don't really need to rehash the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Robert McNamara, Bull Connor, Ken Keysey, or poor Kitty Genovese. This book is great for newcomers to modern American history. I felt that if the book was more focused on the fair itself, there would have been much more about Walt Disney and the fair's influence on Disneyland/World, with which this fair is popularly connected in memory and significance.

I learned a lot about Robert Moses, NYC's "master builder" and devotee of automobiles, but primarily at this end of his life. I learned a lot more about his accomplishments in part six of Ric Burns' PBS documentary, "New York". The author goes into great detail about civil rights protests, primarily organized by CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), designed to bring attention to black suffering in general, and the ghettoization of northern blacks specifically. Malcolm X figures into northern racial unrest as well, so I did not feel like his inclusion in the greater story was due to the author's drive to present a tapestry of America at the time. The author goes into great detail about Moses' decades-long failure to provide adequate services for African-Americans, and goes so far as the call him a segregationist, which I think was accurate.

Overall, I appreciated what this book was, but it was not what I wanted, although all the CORE stuff was great.

[Mark Skousen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America, by Joseph Tirella (Global Peuot Press, 2014). I listened to the audiobook read by Joe Barrett. Living all the way on the other side of the Continent (Portland, Oregon), I never went to the 1964 New York World's Fair. But I heard about it, and wished I had gone. This is a wonderful in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the World's Fair, and how the autocrat Robert Moses (the man who built New York City's highways and parks) ran it. The line was always "New York has its Moses." New York has always had its bigger-than-life characters, and Robert Moses is one of them. I also liked the chapter on Walt Disney and his involvement in the Fair. But it's also a history of a new era, the Rebellious Sixties -- the rise of a new form of rock 'n roll beginning with Bob Dylan and the Beatles (who played there), the drug scene, the art scene, crime (murders in New York), Vietnam, protests, and of course civil rights. In fact, the civil rights movement dominates the book, perhaps too much. The author goes on and on about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the battle for equality, and even has whole chapters on civil rights in the South, a thousand miles away from the World's Fair. After a while, it become a bit off subject. But overall an engaging book.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the story behind the 1964 World's Fair in NYC. Set against the back drop of the Civil Rights movement, Beatlemania and the Kennedy assassination, the describes the single minded determination of one man to get the job done. While previous World Fairs had introduced the world to the Ferris wheel and ice cream cones, the 1964 fair also had elements to showcase. Walt Disney prototyped "it's a small world", Abe Lincoln ambitronics and EPCOT at the fair. Also America was introduced to the Belgian Waffle!
It was interesting to read about the area, the Unisphere, Shea Stadium and "Singer Stadium" which still remains as part of the Billy Jean King Tennis Center. I attended the fair in 1964 and so this book held special meaning and significance.

[Jane Buchbauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historical account of the politics and background of the 1964-1965 World's Fair in NYC, this book is interesting but not for everyone. It is non-fiction and well written but a tedious read, nonetheless. As a child I was raised in Queens and attended the fair more than once. The tumultuous world revolving the event was not lost on me in spite of my young age, at the time, and the telling of the story brought a lot of strange, negative feelings to the surface. Racial tensions, increased crime, the Beatles phenomenon all are interwoven with the plans and machinations of Robert Moses in the creation of this historical event. I would certainly recommend it to those who enjoy non-fictional historical accounts but it is not for those seeking an easy, laid-back read.

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1964 my family (along with a lot of the other families we knew) traveled to New York City for the World's Fair, the latest in a series of spectacular exhibitions that seem to have disappeared from the world's stage. This book not only gives the history of the development of the fair (seemingly the last egomaniacal act of New York City's "master builder" Robert Moses) but also juxtapositions it with the events of the day: the civil rights struggle, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the rise of the pop culture of the decade and the war on poverty and crime.

Deftly told with profiles of the major players of the day, this is a fascinating study of a world that seems like it was just yesterday, but is rapidly fading into history.

[Chris Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the 1964-65 World's Fair is told here with the backdrop of the Civil Rights struggle, the Kennedy assassination, Beatlemania, Kitty Genovese murder, growth of US presence in Vietnam and many other significant events of the day. To me, that is the book's strength. Often we view these events as singular and not interconnected, but this book does a good job of tying them all together and how they came out at the World's Fair. The 1965 portion of the book seemed a bit hurried but not enough so that it took away from the overall story. Recommended.

[Joshua Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look at America in the first half of the 1960s - politically, racially, artistically. Wish there was more about individual reactions to the fair itself...although maybe it reflects the period where he Fair was consumed by everything around it. There was little on innovations from the Fair (none?) the reaction to Disney's creations, individual responses to seeing foreign cultures up close. Felt like a drive-by of the Fair.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and interesting overview of the 1964-65 World's Fair set in the context of American politics, Civil Rights, and music of the time. Tirella could have used a good editor, but otherwise a very enjoyable read.

[Slagle Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a trip to the fair plus a whole lot more. It is in many ways the story of fair organizer/ NYC power broker/Master Builder Robert Moses but not his alone. Cultural icons like Walt Disney, Bob Dylan and the Beatles are among the cast of characters assembled. Other significant players include Martin Luther King, Malcom X and other leaders of the then young Civil Rights Movement, for the fair is very much examined through the context of its early to mid-1960s time frame. With a theme of “Peace through understanding,” the fair unfolded in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and ran concurrently with the escalation of fighting in Vietnam and racial strife and violence in American towns and cities. The author does a brilliant job of capturing the big picture of the times and some of the planning minutiae and political bickering related to the fair. If you read the e-version of this book as I did, make note that photos of the fair are located at the very back of the manuscript.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

When we speak of "progress" in relation to American history, we speak of two dichotomous elements: those who envisioned change, and those responsible for making that change a reality. Capitalists, industrialists, politicos, and robber barons dreamed of railroads and oil fields, of rising cityscapes and vast homesteads, of rivers spanned by steel and gateways blasted through mountains; and to accomplish these dreams, they employed the poor and desperate, many of them new to the nation and from the teeming and neglected city tenements. Some were even destined to die in the process, bodies crushed, unrecognizable, unreturnable. For mere change these workers slaved in unbearable conditions, all to realize the visions of men who would reap great fortunes and become immortalized; today, we know the latter--Carnegie for his steel, Roebling for his bridge--while the thousands whose blood and perspiration cooled their foundations have been forgotten, names erased from even the footnotes of history. Just as they were replaceable in life, they have become forgettable in death. And while both of these juxtaposed entities--the rich and powerful few, the impoverished and powerless many--often found themselves in conflict with one another as the growing nation dealt with intolerance, inequality, and disparity, one could not exist without the other, and it's in that symbiotic relationship that American became what it is today.

This uneasy relationship is at the heart of Joseph Tirella's Tomorrow-Land, a thorough and tangent-heavy look at the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York City. In this instance, the industrialists of decades past are personified by Robert Moses, the all-powerful city planner of New York whose unchecked powers and unyielding influence made him the most influential man of his day, possibly even after the president himself. The World's Fair was his baby almost from the beginning, and he kept a near dictatorial control over every aspect of its realization, from zoning and legislating to budgeting and hiring practices, a decision that would not only ensure the fair's success but also guarantee conflict.

At the same time, the United States was descending into a level of unrest that was both unprecedented and inevitable. Racial minorities, until now segregated in all aspects of society by powers beyond their reach, were beginning to join one another and fight for rights long denied to them. Their leaders--Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John Lewis, Bayard Rustin--waged their individual battles differently, but as a movement their messages were the same: equality now, at long last, and equality forever. It was a call echoing throughout the entire country--everywhere, that is, except Moses' urban dreamscape, where power and employment were reserved for those of the lightest complexion. For an event claiming to represent the importance of fairness, progress, and togetherness, the lack of diversity among those paid to realize this utopian ideal was startlingly--and unforgivably--ironic.

Similarly, the country was dominated by another force beyond its comprehension and control--the "invasion" of British music, as represented by the Beatles--and before long the four young, mop-haired singers from Liverpool commanded all the attention and deference befitting a single head of state. When the Beatles performed stateside, they themselves could not hear their instruments above the raucous shouts and screams of adoring fans. Venues once considered large suddenly found themselves too small, and once popular singers were relegated to lower spots on the charts, their music now indicative of a fading style. Robert Moses, again presented with a chance to make his World's Fair a true personification of progress by inviting the Beatles to perform in the ground's large stadium, refused, preferring instead the subdued and outdated music he himself enjoyed. There would be no room at his cherished project for a style that he himself did not understand.

In fact, when taken in context with America in the 1960s, Robert Moses' fair begins to seem almost antiquated--an anachronistic relic of the past somehow lodged in the present and proclaiming itself a moniker of the future. And while there were some elements of the Worlds Fair that were truly impressionistic--Walt Disney, for one, funded a series of animatronic presidents, predating the rise of realistic robotics by quite a few years, and there were works of modernist and pop artists featured prominently--much of what Moses looked at as progressive was, in fact, stale, like a tourist trap that attempted to appease Middle America without scaring it away. In such turbulent times, the World's Fair became less of a dream and more of a comfort and escape--a place where everyday Americans, themselves troubled by the rapid changes occurring around them, could bask in a view of the future in which cities did not burn, music did not scandalize, and subjugated races were suspiciously absent.

When the World's Fair closed, it did so without having made back all of the money spent on its construction, and with attendance lower than what had been expected--two indications of the event's failure that many in charge, including Moses in particular, chose to ignore. (When these shortfalls were brought to Moses' attention by a dutiful accountant, the data was ignored and the accountant, in both frustration and disgust, resigned.) Today, the 600-acre fairgrounds still holds many of the fair's most impressive buildings and artistic pieces, including the famed Unisphere, but not what the fair represented. Because, as history now shows, the World's Fair offered a look into the future while remaining blind to the present--a conflict that embodies much of American history.


This review was originally published at There Will Be Books Galore.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected this to be mostly about the World's Fair, which I attended when I was 8 or 9 years old. My memory of it is very clear on some things and sketchy on others, so I thought this might be an interesting way to fill in the gaps about exhibits, layout of the fair and events that went on during it. The book did fill in a lot of gaps, but more about current events which at the the time I was too young to appreciate. People, places, events - all familiar to me as background of my childhood - hearing them mentioned on the news or hearing adults talking about them - are discussed here as they affected the developing World's Fair. It was kind of like revisiting your childhood but as an adult with an adult's wider perspective of everything that went on, from the civil rights movement to popular music.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sometimes interesting, this book can be infuriating in how much it veers off course. About half the book is about the 1960's as a decade, not the Fair itself. He spends many pages talking about the Beatles and Bob Dylan, though the only connection is that the musicians were redefining American music at the time the Fair was happening and the Beatles played a concert near the Fair.

If Tirella wants to write about the 60's, fine. But this book was really part history of the Fair, part biography of Robert Moses and part expansive meditation on the 1960's, and, in the end, it lacked any narrative focus.

[Anthony Colozza · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started this book I though it was going to be about the 1964 World's Fair, as it says in the title. However, this is not the case. The book is loosely written around the worlds fair and does discuss the main people involved with the design and operation of the fair but the majority of the book is about the civil rights movement and pop culture (mainly music) of the early to mid 1960's. That said it is a very well written and enjoyable book. It provides a very good history of these aspects of that era. If you are looking for a book about the planning and operation of a large social event like the World's Fair this is probably not going to be what you are looking for. But if you are interested in quasi-history of the early 1960s which touches on the World's Fair and its meaning but focused mainly on civil rights and music, you will very much enjoy this book.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got to attend the Fair with my parents several times over its run. In retrospect it wasn't really a "World's Fair" at least not like Montreal's Expo 67 which I also attended. New York's was more like an advertisement for corporate America. Not that I didn't enjoy all the amazing exhibits.

As for this book I did learn some background stuff on the Fair which I'd been unaware of. Even the tying in of 60s events to the Fair was interesting. But I did think that came to take over the book. And some events seemed to be repeated endlessly in different chapters.

[Megan H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great '60s retrospective and Robert Moses character study. Fairly weak and meandering exploration of the actual 1964 World's Fair.

Tirella dives surprisingly deeply into the Civil Rights Movement, the Kitty Genovese case, Andy Warhol, Beatlemania, the plight of the Kennedys, etc., but makes only tenuous connections between these topics and the Fair. The contemporary culture and politics undoubtedly had profound impact on the Fair, but Tirella didn't seem particularly interested in arguing how!

80% context, 20% subject.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cultural history of the 1964-65 NY World's Fair emphasizing, properly, the machinations of Robert Moses, the New York City power broker, who bore responsibility for the event, for better and for worse. A financial disaster, the Fair functioned as a celebration of American corporate consumerism with a futuristic tinge, courtesy largely of Walt Disney. Tirella places the Fair in the rapidly changing political context of the mid-1960s and his background summaries are trustworthy. A good read.

[Allan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The old saying less is more definitely could be applied to this book. I picked up this book because I thought it would talk about the worlds fair. Unfortunately the author decided to rehash every figure and event that took place in the US during 1964 and 1965 while the fair took place. While I found the parts that actually spoke about the worlds fair interesting, the rest of it was a bit of a rehash of American history during the time period. This book could have used some major editing. Strange book.

[Catherine Wetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved finding out all that went on to bring the Worlds Fair to New York. A must read for anyone who attended this Fair.My family went here. My very most favorite memory is seeing the Pieta. One of my best childhood times with my family. All the work to make something so spectacular to happen was so well worth it.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike The End of Innocence, this book about the 1964-65 World’s Fair had a comprehensive view of the early 1960s, focusing on everything from politics to civil rights to music to war and its impact on the Fair. It was a great read and interesting to see how the moving parts all impacted each other.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book, not only about the fair but the zeitgeist of the era. What was happening in New York, the US and the world in the early sixties. The author treats the major protagonist, Robert Moses, a very flawed man, fairly and gives credit where credit it due. He has no kind words for Robert Wagner, who did little to correct the city’s problems.