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Shadow Fair:
The Unfinished Business
of The World of Tomorrow

Part 1 —
Worlds Within The 1939–40
New York World’s Fair

  1. Historical Resonance (1939–40 and 
    2019–20)
  2. Thematic Structures
  3. Substance and Shadow: Business as Usual
  4. Material World

Part 2 —
Future Imperfect: Indelible Shadows

  1. (More) Unfinished Business:
    Structures of The American Psyche
  2. It’s a Man’s World
  3. Brave Face
  4. The Unfinished World of Tomorrow, Redux

Part 3 —
Persuasive Mechanics: “Let us sell America to Americans”

  1. Soft Power and Spectacle
  2. Design Makes the Future Its Business
  3. The Works Progress Administration (WPA)
  4. Designing Futures, Then and Now

Part 4 —
Art and Design: Critical Response

  1. From Research to Response
  2. Activating the Archive: A Critical Synthesis
  3. Curation, Exhibition, Programming: Models and Forms
  4. Notes
Mark


Part 3 explores the Fair’s themes and its tactics of display—and the relationship between corporate expansion and the democratic ideals expressed in FDR’s New Deal policies for public welfare.

Cultural blindspots notwithstanding, the Fair strived to represent all aspects of American life, telling our stories through products, processes, and power structures. Then, as now, the basics of civic life were balanced with the distractions of amusement and entertainment. The Fair’s public—as they were led to comprehend the workings of Democracy within a staged pageant of international customs—could experience constant visual spectacle, material innovation, and diverting amusements while being made to understand these as vital representations of democracy.