Since their inception with New York's Crystal Palace Exhibition in the mid-nineteenth century, world's fairs have introduced Americans to “exotic” pleasures such as belly dancing and the Ferris Wheel; pathbreaking technologies such as telephones and X rays; and futuristic architectural, landscaping, and transportation schemes. Billed by their promoters as “encyclopedias of civilization,” the expositions impressed tens of millions of fairgoers with model environments and utopian visions. Setting more than 30 world’s fairs from 1853 to 1984 in their historical context, the authors show that the expositions reflected and influenced not only the ideals but also the cultural tensions of their times. As mainstays rather than mere ornaments of American life, world’s fairs created national support for such issues as the social reunification of North and South after the Civil War, U.S. imperial expansion at the turn of the 20th-century, consumer optimism during the Great Depression, and the essential unity of humankind in a nuclear age.

At the time of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the United States was fast becoming the world's leading economy. Chicago, the host city, had grown in less than half a century from a village to the country's second-largest metropolis. During this, the Gilded Age, the world's most extensive railroad and steamship networks poured ceaselessly through Chicago, carrying the raw goods and finished products of America's great age of invention and industrial expansion. The Fair was the largest ever at the time, with 65,000 exhibitors and millions of visitors. It has been called the "Blueprint of the American Future" and marked the beginning of the national economy and consumer culture.

Born in poverty in 19th century New York City, Mike Barnes rose to become America’s premiere 20th century American show fair impresario, who embodied the Irving Berlin lyric, “There’s no business like show business.” For four decades, he presented dramatic spectacles worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, musical and dancing revues that rivaled anything by Busby Berkeley, animal acts, daredevil wing walkers, human cannonballs, flagpole sitters and auto demolitions. He assembled and directed these acts, entertaining millions across the United States, even during times of depression and world war. His influence on outdoor lighting and sound system presentation is still felt today in 21st century outdoor performances. Besides a snapshot of midcentury America, America’s State Fair Impresario:The Life & Times of Mike Barnes is the story of a modest man who was a brilliant showman, shrewd businessman, philanthropist, and exemplary family man. In short, a legendary American.

The IRS must be replaced The IRS is not producing the revenues needed to grow our economy. The fact that more poor and lower income Americans pay little or no taxes and the rich and big business have tax loopholes, plus the growing number of Americans who don't even file any income taxes, compiled with many tax cheaters - it's little wonder why federal revenues are declining when they should be increasing. We also have a growing underground economy in America as more and more Americans and illegals are dealing with cash only and not paying any income taxes. This underground economy is at least $500 billion a year. We must have a national consumption tax (aka national volume added or national sales tax) as of Jan. 1, 2011. We can make it 10 percent on everything. Five percent of this national consumption tax goes to the federal government and five percent goes to the states to pay for the unfunded mandates the federal government passes. Also, as of 2011, the IRS should cut IRS taxes in half and make them much more simple. In a year or two, if the national consumer tax increases federal and state revenues, we can double it to 20 percent and nearly eliminate the IRS. A national value added sales tax will let America receive revenues from goods sold in America by slave labor countries and eliminate the cash-only underground economy. Whereas I suggest that the states receive 50 percent of the revenue received by a national sales tax (aka value added tax) the states could collect and monitor this tax. With the exception of two or three states with no sales tax, they could implement and enforce this consumption tax with a few new employees. We must financially help the states because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Health care bill is not funded President Obama said, "This health care legislation will be the greatest legislation since Roosevelt passed the Social Security Act." However, unlike Social Security, it is an unfunded mandate which exceeds the ability of big and small businesses to pay for. It is a socialistic boondoggle incognito. It is my opinion that big business and small business cannot afford to pay for health insurance for the many Americans whom they employ. The health care bill will cause more unemployment in America.

Contains the reports of state departments and officials for the preceding fiscal biennium.

This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.