Ephemeral City

Lindsay Fullerton's new book, Ephemeral City: A People's History of Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair, is an in-depth exploration of the second world's fair in the Windy City, the 1933–34 Century of Progress Exposition.While much has been written about Chicago's first world's fair, the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Depression-era Century of Progress has been relatively overlooked. World's fair historian Robert Rydell has discussed the fair in the context of other world's fairs of the 1930s, and Cheryl Ganz's 2008 book thoroughly covers the fair's first season, while Lisa Schrenk explored the fair's distinct modern architectural style in 2007. Fullerton's work adds to this existing scholarship and makes it much more robust.The subtitle of Ephemeral City gives away Fullerton's methodology: This work focuses on the perspective of fair visitors. Not only is this something that has been missing from explorations of the Century of Progress Exposition, it is one that is lacking in world's fair scholarship generally. This kind of work is challenging; primary sources recording individual experiences are difficult to track down, and it can be hard to make generalizations about how people perceived fairs and made meaning from their experiences. Fullerton has successfully combed through scrapbooks and firsthand accounts to create a robust picture of the fair's visitors while also using more readily available institutional records of fair organizers. Fullerton's own grandfather's experiences at A Century of Progress and his collections form a crucial part of this book's story.Fullerton's work is comprehensive—she covers both seasons and many aspects of the fair. While her intention is to focus on the visitor's experience, she spends a good deal of time talking about fair management's decisions and intentions as well. Each of the five chapters focus on a different aspect of the fair: making or building the fair, its relationship to Chicago, funding, finances and the Great Depression, science and technology, and the fair's lasting legacies.Fullerton argues that the full impact of any world's fair cannot be understood without visitor's experiences, and her book proves that point is true by how the rich perspectives on the visitor experiences add to the scholarship of the Century of Progress. While fair management often brushed aside the contradictions of the Great Depression, the visitor experiences that Fullerton incorporates more firmly situate the Century of Progress in the 1930s.There has not yet been a book that has so robustly covered both seasons of Chicago's second world's fair, and Fullerton's thoroughness is a major strength of this work. The richness of primary sources makes the fair real and fleshes out the story in all of its complexity. The final chapter, which evaluates the lasting legacies of the fair, is particularly useful. Ephemeral City is a necessary addition to world's fair scholarship and to the history of Chicago.

Ephemeral key · Scholarship · Subtitle · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Conferences and Exhibitions Management