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A carregar... All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 (edição 1987)por Robert W. Rydell (Autor)
Informação Sobre a ObraAll the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 por Robert W. Rydell
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Robert W. Rydell contends that America's early world's fairs actually served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad. He looks in particular to the "ethnological" displays of nonwhites--set up by showmen but endorsed by prominent anthropologists--which lent scientific credibility to popular racial attitudes and helped build public support for domestic and foreign policies. Rydell's lively and thought-provoking study draws on archival records, newspaper and magazine articles, guidebooks, popular novels, and oral histories. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)909.81074013History and Geography History World history 1800- 1800-1899, 19th centuryClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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Of the 1876 Centennial Expo, Rydell writes, “Rather than merely offering an escape from the economic and political uncertainties of the Reconstruction years, the fair was a calculated response to these conditions. Its organizers sought to challenge doubts and restore confidence in the vitality of America’s system of government as well as in the social and economic structure of the country” (pg. 11). He continues, “In the course of planning the exposition, the role of scientists, especially those of the Smithsonian, expanded until, at crucial junctures, the histories of the Centennial and American science became interwoven” (pg. 20). The Smithsonian’s propagation of scientific racism continued through subsequent fairs and helped establish the defense of American imperialism. In this way, Rydell concludes of the Columbian Exposition, “The fair did not merely reflect American racial attitudes, it grounded them on ethnological bedrock” (pg. 55). The southern fairs helped to heal sectional differences lingering after the Civil War, even going so far as to include Civil War reunions. Further, the creation of hierarchical displays of “types” of humanity reinforced existing racism (pg. 101). Rydell writes of them, “In the closing decades of the century, the southern fairs succeeded in reintroducing antebellum imperial dreams to millions of fairgoers” (pg. 104). The Omaha fair, following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, “provided ideological scaffolding for mass support of the government’s imperial policies” (pg. 108). This continued in Buffalo, where “the colonial exhibit at the exposition, in short, would generate support in the United States for maintaining and extending America’s colonial empire” (pg. 139). Rydell writes, “Inside the exposition, ethnological displays and midway attractions with ethnological attributes gave this historical and utopian narrative a basis in received scientific and pseudoscientific wisdom” (pg. 131). The Saint Louis exposition continued this, where, according to Rydell, lectures from W. J. McGee, an anthropologist, “vindicated American national experience and synthesized the works of leading evolutionary thinkers including Darwin, Powell, and Spencer. The lectures offered a vision of racial progress that made cultural advance synonymous with increased industrial expansion” (pg. 161). This advance appeared in exhibits arranged by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that portrayed Native Americans as a once-great civilization now disappearing to make way for industrialism. The Pacific-Northwest expositions “focused national attention on the possibilities for economic growth through the development of trans-Pacific market while providing the region and nation with visions of racial progress” (pg. 185). The California fairs continued this utopian vision, but “at California’s fairs, however, the vision of utopia rested squarely on the application of scientific racial categories to selected white and nonwhite populations alike” (pg. 219). Rydell concludes, “Largely as a result of the expositions, nationalism and racism became crucial parts of the legitimizing ideology offered to a nation torn by class conflict” (pg. 236). Furthermore, “Far from simply reflecting American culture, the expositions were intended to shape that culture. They left an enduring vision of empire” (pg. 237). ( )