The world's fair as relic

Twentieth-century expositions increasingly embodied fashionable ideas of social planning. They came to stand for a controlled and predictable version of progress: the dream of a civilization built from scratch, designed — or at least rearranged — according to an expert ideal of order. Or as the Century of Progress motto put it, "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms."

Virginia Postrel discusses how and why world's fairs lost their appeal in the West, while China embraces the Shanghai fair wholeheartedly.

Posted by David on July 29, 2010 10:13 AM