In 1926, the city of Philadelphia hosted the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition to honor the 150th anniversary of American independence. The exposition featured four major exhibition palaces where innovations and advancements in science, technology, education, industry, and agriculture were displayed. An additional fifth palace was dedicated to the fine arts, and foreign nations and individual states erected their own buildings as well. The expositions theme of patriotism was showcased through the re?created High Street of 1776, a favorite for many. Visitors were also entertained and delighted as they experienced areas known as Treasure Island and the Gladway, where all manner of amusements abounded. Crowds were drawn to the many sporting and cultural events held in the newly built stadium. Even the grounds of the navy yard were opened to the public, allowing citizens views of historic and modern naval vessels and military exhibits. By these offerings, and many others, the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition celebrated the nations past, present, and future.

In 1926, the city of Philadelphia hosted the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition to honor the 150th anniversary of American independence. The exposition featured four major exhibition palaces where innovations and advancements in science, technology, education, industry, and agriculture were displayed. An additional fifth palace was dedicated to the fine arts, and foreign nations and individual states erected their own buildings as well. The expositions theme of patriotism was showcased through the re?created High Street of 1776, a favorite for many. Visitors were also entertained and delighted as they experienced areas known as Treasure Island and the Gladway, where all manner of amusements abounded. Crowds were drawn to the many sporting and cultural events held in the newly built stadium. Even the grounds of the navy yard were opened to the public, allowing citizens views of historic and modern naval vessels and military exhibits. By these offerings, and many others, the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition celebrated the nations past, present, and future.

Held in Philadelphia from May 10 through October 10, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition celebrated the 100th anniversary of American independence. Philadelphia hosted 37 nations in five main buildings and 250 additional structures on 285 acres of land. The celebration looked backward to commemorate the progress made over the 100-year period, and it announced to the world that American invention and innovation was on a par with that of our foreign counterparts. Patriotism abounded, as did messages of industrial and commercial prowess that promised a brighter future for all. Over nine million people attended this awesome consumer spectacle, an event that set the tone for a long series of world's fairs yet to come.

In 1916, Philadelphia department-store magnate John Wanamaker launched plans for a Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in 1926. It would be a magnificent world's fair to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The “Sesqui” would also transform sooty, industrial Philadelphia into a beautiful Beaux Arts city. However, when the Sesqui opened on May 31, 1926, in the remote, muddy swamps of South Philadelphia, the fair was unfinished, with a few shabbily built and mostly empty structures. Crowds stayed away in droves: fewer than five million paying customers attended, costing the city millions of dollars. Philadelphia became a national scandal—a city so corrupt that one political boss could kidnap an entire world’s fair. In his fascinating history Sesqui!, noted historian Thomas Keels situates this ill-fated celebration—a personal boondoggle by the all-powerful Congressman William S. Vare—against the transformations taking place in America during the 1920s. Keels provides a comprehensive account of the Sesqui as a meeting ground for cultural changes sweeping the country: women’s and African-American rights, anti-Semitism, eugenics, Prohibition, and technological advances.

In the depths of the Great Depression, when America's future seemed bleak, nearly one hundred million people visited expositions celebrating the "century of progress." These fairs fired the national imagination and served as cultural icons on which Americans fixed their hopes for prosperity and power. World of Fairs continues Robert W. Rydell's unique cultural history—begun in his acclaimed All the World's a Fair—this time focusing on the interwar exhibitions. He shows how the ideas of a few—particularly artists, architects, and scientists—were broadcast to millions, proclaiming the arrival of modern America—a new empire of abundance build on old foundations of inequality. Rydell revisits several fairs, highlighting the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial, the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, the 1933-34 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, the 1935-36 San Diego California Pacific Exposition, the 1936 Dallas Texas Centennial Exposition, the 1937 Cleveland Great Lakes and International Exposition, the 1939-40 San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, and the 1958 Brussels Universal Exposition.