1939: The Lost World of the Fair

by David Gelernter

Book Overview

1939 evokes a time when America and the world were unknowingly poised on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. Gelernter gives readers a virtual reality picture of the 1939 World's Fair, and the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038072748X
• ISBN13: 9780380727483
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 418 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

You are there at the Fair

I've always been intrigued by the iconic images of the Trylon and Perisphere, from when I first saw them on a U.S Postage stamp many years ago. This book offers a way to travel back in time to live through the fair, led by the author through the eyes of fictional characters experiencing the (factual) fair. What is amazing is how the author skillfully weaves together everything to create such a compelling story. I had also bought the (100%) factual books "New York's 1939-1940 World's Fair (Postcard history series) and Dover publications' "The New York World's Fair. Both of these book offer lots of nice snapshots, but do not make the Fair come to life as does David Gelernter"s "1939: The Lost World of the Fair." Highly recommended!

Just like being there!

I'm one of those people who has never been to New York City, though I would love to see it. This book wonderfully transports you to that city in the years of 1939-1940 and to that World's Fair. It was a time that people thought of science and technology as something that had the power to transform their lives in a positive manner, unlike the misplaced cynicism encountered today, even though we have now realized many of the dreams of that long ago fair, and many more. David Gelernter takes you on a tour of that fair, including the various national and corporate exibits and pavilions, many were absolutely amazing, even by today's standards. Several are described in intricate detail, and being in the 1930's electro-mechanical control systems were the rule, some being very complex. Gelernter also portrays some typical hypothetical people visiting the fair and what they did. How people dressed back then, and also the underlying societal feelings, are covered, the war in Europe being on everyones mind. This is a very well written and comprehensive account of this most famous of fairs, I immensely enjoyed it, and Gelernter covers that last few hours of the Fair with poignancy as it closed in 1940. This account makes me wish I could travel back in time and see it myself, a wistful longing not to be.

Excellent book on the Fair

I thoroughly enjoyed this book's combination of history and fiction. It was very well written, very well researched and the descriptions of the 1939 World's Fair are truly outstanding.

Both insightful and delightful....

Gelernter presents a powerful argument(s) for the moral and motivational decline of our society since the late 1930's- as highlighted by the theme and focus of the 1939 World's Fair

Brilliant work: insightful, vast, cogent, witty, poignant

This book is essential reading for any serious student of American history. David Gelernter takes the reader on a tour of the New York 1939 World's Fair; an event that, to steal a phrase from the 90's, served as the "Mission Statement" of the GI generation that was to build and settle the Levitowns of the nation. A clever, sweeping, powerfully descriptive, and at times poignant account of the Fair, convened at a time when New Deal New York was at the peak of its power, yet hosting a fair which in a fanciful but compelling manner, laid out plans for the postwar decline of the cities, including New York. 1939 was at the cusp of two worlds; this transition was epitomized by the Worlds Fair. Gelernter captures the awful sense of forboding that all thinking American must have shared in 1939 as the world of '30's glamour, shared civic purpose and almost unreal, yet good natured, public naivite was about to be swept into the coming mayhem of world war. The Fair was a brief shining moment between the twin disasters of Depression and World War; Gelernter captures the ambivalence of ordinary (though as presented in the book, highly articulate and observant) people who ponder the mesmerizing beauty and order of the "World of Tomorrow," while wondering if they'll survive Hitler.....much as future generations planned future lives in the shadow of the Bomb or HIV. Buy this book and read it.....not only to learn how we got to our present world, but also to taste, smell, hear, feel and witness the "world of our fathers;" this brilliant work will transport you as few other books can.