All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916
by Robert W. Rydell
University of Chicago Press, 1985
Cloth: 978-0-226-73239-8 | Paper: 978-0-226-73240-4 | eISBN: 978-0-226-92325-3 (all)
Library of Congress Classification T395.5.U6R93 1984
Dewey Decimal Classification 909.81074013
ABOUT THIS BOOK
A groundbreaking account of the ways the United States used world's fairs to extend its empire abroad and racial hierarchies at home
In All the World's a Fair, Robert W. Rydell argues that America's nineteenth-century world's fairs served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad. He looks in particular to the "ethnological" displays of nonwhites—set up by showmen but endorsed by prominent anthropologists—which lent scientific credibility to popular racial attitudes and helped build public support for domestic and foreign policies. Rydell's lively and thought-provoking study draws on archival records, newspaper and magazine articles, guidebooks, popular novels, and oral histories to tell a new story of American history and empire.
In All the World's a Fair, Robert W. Rydell argues that America's nineteenth-century world's fairs served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad. He looks in particular to the "ethnological" displays of nonwhites—set up by showmen but endorsed by prominent anthropologists—which lent scientific credibility to popular racial attitudes and helped build public support for domestic and foreign policies. Rydell's lively and thought-provoking study draws on archival records, newspaper and magazine articles, guidebooks, popular novels, and oral histories to tell a new story of American history and empire.
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