Social Engineering in The New York 1939 World Fair

The 1939 Worlds Fair , held in Queens , New York City , was a symbol for optimism in the future and the joys that technology might bring future generations . The time and circumstance of the fair , held over the Fair and all who attended , an ominous tone or brewing trouble that was about to come to a head in the coming and months and years as the entire world embarked on the bloodiest conflict in human history : World War II and its fifty five million deaths from the conflict . However , the 1939 Worlds Fair , for

the most part , conveniently bypassed the troubles in Europe and the question of whether or not the United States , against the will of the vast majority of Americans , would be pulled into the conflict in the next two short years . For 1939 and 1940 , the attention of the more than forty four million people who attended , was focused on the future when it seemed that the problems of the future could not solved through television and color home movies . An optimism that had just been allowed to show itself after ten long years of depression was not being pushed aside by events in Europe ' Schaden , Chuck . The 1939 World 's Fair . Schiller Park , IL Nostalgia Digest . April 1999 . pg . 12

However , the 1939 Worlds Fair also provided a window into the future regarding the problems that these new inventions would be bringing to the world of the 20th century . The invention of jet propulsion and the possibilities of the new atomic age , which it turned out , was only six years in the future , showed the possibilities of wars in which there would be no winners , as there would be no people left to claim victory This message was lost in the immediate , as the majority of spectators were mesmerized by such new inventions as television , Plexiglas , 3D films , photocopiers , a time capsule that was directed not to be opened for five thousand years , a Trylon seven hundred feet high and a Perisphere as big as our modern days stadiums . Burns , Ric . The History of New York : City of Tomorrow . Boston : PBS Video . 1999

The Fair was billed as The World of Tomorrow http /xroads .virginia .edu / The World of Tomorrow ' Downloaded March 20 , 2007

And in many ways , both good and bad , it was

By 1939 , the worst of the Great Depression was over . The Great Depression would not officially end until the end of World War II , six years later , but the levels of unemployment seen in `33 and `34 , were a memory and the country , partly from the work projects of the New Deal helped to put the country back to work . As is the case with such projects , the planning for the 1939 Worlds Fair was first started in 1935 , with the offices of the planners , being located at the top of the Empire State Building . The building had only been completed in 1931 but by 1935 , still had not made a profit and...