Together with the Olympics, world's fairs are one of the few regular international events of sufficient scale to showcase a spectrum of sights, wonders, learning opportunities, technological advances, and new (or renewed) urban districts, and to present them all to a mass audience. Meet Me at the Fair: A World's Fair Reader breaks new ground in scholarship on world's fairs by incorporating a number of short new texts that investigate world's fairs in their multiple aspects: political, urban/architectural, anthropological/ sociological, technological, commercial, popular, and representational. Contributors come from eight different countries and represent affiliations in academia, museums and libraries, professional and architectural firms, non-profit organizations, and government regulatory agencies. In taking the measure of both the material artifacts and the larger cultural production of world's fairs, the volume presents its own phantasmagoria of disciplinary perspectives, historical periods, geographical locales, media, and messages, mirroring the microcosmic form of the world's fair itself.

Hootchy-kootchy Meets Rich and Snooty in the Delightfully Sweet Americana Romance, Bicycle Built for Two, from Rachel Wilson —1893 Chicago World’s Fair— Hard-working, snobbish, and overbearing, Alex English is proud of his position in the World's Fair Agricultural Forum. When one of the women working as a fortune-teller and stand-in for the dancer, Little Egypt, threatens to upset the wholesome, educational atmosphere, Alex takes umbrage. Kate Finney is working two jobs at the fair to make ends meet and to keep herself and her mother safe from her alcoholic father. But her father pursues her to the fair and then tries to kill her. Mr. Finney is just the sort of nasty element Alex wants kept away from the fair, and if that means Kate must lose her jobs, so be it. But Kate's not going without a fight! Completely vexed by Kate's response, Alex sees the smart, strong, beautiful Kate in a new light. But it takes an unsolicited act of kindness to bridge the gap between their separate worlds and ignite a fire not easily quenched. Publisher's Note: Set in a real time and place, this story is a light and humorous romance about a couple that couldn't be more mismatched. Light on sensuality, this story will be enjoyed by readers who appreciate sweet romance. "A BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO is a rollicking ride into the gay nineties and a look at life on the wrong side of the tracks. Alex is part of the rich aristocracy and quite the snob when it comes to associating with the unfortunate people of the lower classes. He has the absurd idea that the poor are simply down on their luck because they choose to be. He is exasperating and sometimes so naive that he frustrates me. Kate is an acid-tongued young woman who is rude and pushy to the extent you want to shake her out of it. When Alex's rose-colored vision of life meets Kate's everyday reality there is an explosion of fireworks. Alex is brought down to humility and Kate is brought up to the realization that there is kindness in the world. Ms. Duncan has penned a fine adventure. A BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO is a delightful story and not to be missed!" ~Diana Risso, Romance Reviews Today The Meet Me at the Fair Series Coming Up Roses Just North of Bliss A Bicycle Built for Two

Worlds collide when a brash Yankee meets a steely southern belle in Just North of Bliss, an Americana romance from Rachel Wilson. —1893 Chicago World’s Fair— Belle Monroe has scandalized her family down to its proud Georgia roots by forsaking genteel poverty to work as a nanny in New York City. When her employer travels to Chicago to see the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Belle accompanies them with her two charges where she meets Mr. Winslow Asher, the official photographer for the World’s Fair—a man possessing all the Yankee traits Belle abhors. Brash, ambitious, and in search of the perfect model of American beauty, Win is immediately and understandably captivated with the beautiful Belle and what he believes are her two children. Personalities clash, but Win soon realizes how wrong he was about Belle and how right she is for him. His tender advances soon make the steely-spined Belle wonder if this brash northerner and a proper southern girl like herself could actually be meant for each other. Publisher's Note: Set in a real time and place, this light and humorous romance is light on sensuality and replete with heated banter. "Set against the backdrop of the Chicago World's Fair, this genteel romance sets prissy Rowena Belle Monroe on a collision course with Yankee photographer Win Asher. Forced by financial circumstances to earn her living as a nanny, Belle is compelled to leave Georgia and come to New York. On a trip to the fair with her employers and two charges, Belle is spotted by Win, the fair's photographer. Stunned and inspired by Belle's beauty, Win tries to persuade her to model for a series of photographs, but she's none too eager to fall in line with his plans. To Belle, Win embodies all the traits she abhors in Yankees, but after many encounters set against the carefully painted portrait of the fair, she surrenders to him both emotionally and physically. Duncan (Coming Up Roses) plays on the cultural differences between the North and South, contrasting Belle's impeccable manners and genteel ideals with Win's assertiveness and ambition. Although Belle will annoy readers at first with her old-fashioned ideals she finds photography "morally repugnant" and thinks only loose women wear makeup she slowly and believably evolves into an empathetic heroine. Unlike many of the highly sensual romances that are available today, this comic confection is light on physical fireworks but heavy on heated banter." ~Publisher's Weekly, Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. The Meet Me at the Fair Series Coming Up Roses Just North of Bliss A Bicycle Built for Two

A devil-may-care big-city newspaperman meets his match in the delightfully heart-warming Americana Romance, Coming Up Roses, by Rachel Wilson —1893 Chicago World’s Fair— Rose Ellen Gilhooley would do just about anything for Buffalo Bill Cody, the showman who plucked her out of poverty in Deadwood, KS, then turned her into one of the stars of his Wild West Show. So, Rose agrees when journalist H.L. May proposes writing a series of articles about her at the Chicago World's Fair. However, the brash and wildly-enthusiastic newspaperman, who wants more than a business relationship, quickly discovers that his smooth words will never win the feisty trick-rider’s affections. So, he turns to Annie Oakley and a few of Rose’s Souix friends for help, but it’s an unseen enemy’s sudden and dangerous kidnapping that creates the common ground for this unlikely love. Publisher's Note: Set in a real time and place, this light and humorous romance captures the nostalgia of the American Gay 90s in Chicago and is sure to be enjoyed by readers of historical American romance. The Meet Me at the Fair Series Coming Up Roses Just North of Bliss A Bicycle Built for Two

Who doesn't love the bustle and jangle, the smells, the sounds, the energy, and the tastes of a lively state fair? In this fast-changing world, keeping any endeavor alive and thriving for 150 years is an accomplishment, but the South Carolina State Fair has met any challenges with doggedness, determination, and flair. In the early 1700s South Carolinians were gathering to exchange information about crops and livestock, and small rural fairs were held, enhanced by horse racing, raffles, and other diversions to draw in the populace. The State Agricultural Society of South Carolina was founded in 1839 and held its first annual fair and stock show in November of the following year. In 1869 the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society of South Carolina was founded to revive the fair and has presented a fair in every year except 1918. The South Carolina State Fair has a long and storied history from those early days to its current "meet me at the rocket" days. Those initial fair goers would have been astonished to see the rocket, a Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missile, greeting them as they arrived on the grounds. The long story of the fair is inextricably bound to the history of South Carolina, of course, and indeed the history of the United States. Stroup ably weaves many strands together through archival records, newspaper reports, anecdotes (have you heard about the "Schara-mouche-Dance by a person from London?") and vintage artifacts, illustrations, paintings, and photographs from the fair's inception to the present. The fair has been an admixture of serious agricultural and animal husbandry and pure entertainment—the scandalous as well as the wholesome, and Stroup investigates them all, from the "Colored State Fair" to the infamous "girlie shows" to the prizes won for livestock—and touches on characters as diverse as Preston Brooks and Seabiscuit. As lively and entertaining as a state fair itself, Meet Me at the Rocket is as thorough a history of an important state institution as can be found. Buy a cotton candy, visit the exhibits, ride the merry-go-round, and enjoy this singular exploration of South Carolina's agriculture and industry, its science and art and history. A foreword is provided by Walter Edgar, the Neuffer Professor of Southern Studies Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of South Carolina: A History, editor of The South Carolina Encyclopedia, and host of the radio program Walter Edgar's Journal.

Songwriters dramatically captured the details of how Americans lived, thought and changed in the first half of the twentieth century. This book examines 1033 songs about WWI and WWII wars, presidents, Women’s Suffrage, Prohibition, the Great Depression, immigration, minority stereotypes, new modes of transportation, inventions, and the changing roles of men and women. America invited immigrants and went to war to ensure democracy but within its borders, lyrics display intolerant attitudes toward women, blacks, and ethnic groups. Songs covered labor strikes, communism, lynchings, women voting and working, love, sex, airships, radio, telephones, the lure of movies and new movie star role models, drugs, smoking, and the atom bomb.History books cannot match the humor, poignancy, poetry and thrill of lyrics in describing the essence of American life as we moved from a rural white male dominated society toward an urban democracy that finally included women and minorities.