Tomorrow-Land

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

De: Joseph Tirella

Narrado por: Joe Barrett

Motivated by the idea of 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 flash point in areas from politics to pop culture, technology to urban planning, and civil rights to violent crime.

In an epic narrative, 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 Pietà from Europe and displayed flickers of innovation from Ford, GM, and NASA—from undersea and outer-space 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.

©2014 Joseph Tirella (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The World's Fair - and World Affairs

I wanted to learn more about the Fair, which I attended when I was ages six and seven. I was somewhat disappointed that a lot of the book was bout the cultural phenomenon and political climate in the 1960s. I appreciate the author's setting the Fair in the context of the era, but he went into far more detail about racial unrest in Mississippi and Alabama, the Beatles' history in the US, Bob Dylan's transformation from poet to lyricist/singer, and LBJ's management of the Vietnam War than necessary to place the fair in context. But a nice overview of the Fair - the controversial lord of the Fair, how geopolitics affected countries' participation, the racial tensions in New York City as they related to the Fair, and the politics leading up to the opening and closing of the Fair.

Excellent! Better than the Samuel offering.

This is an excellent, detailed account of the politics of the fair, the country and the whole social situation at the time. Well presented, detailed and contemplative. It's in no way a fuff piece nor does it detail every exhibit like a catalog. It is about the social and cultural issues of the time and how they relate to the irony known as the '64/'65 fair. The book also detais the great visionary builder Robert Moses in the proper context of the arrogant, myopic and self serving man he was.

I was very impressed with the book and the narration and will recommend it to others intersted in the subject. Thank you!

20 % fair 80 % early 1960's current events.

I expected to hear a book about the NYWF. What I heard was a book about early 60's current events. Would have gotton 4 stars had I expected to hear about the world as it was. Better off on Youtube if you would like to know about the Worlds Fair. For me it was a struggle to get through.