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Crisis and Commerce

World's Fairs of the 1930s

On View:
Wednesday, September 18, 2013 — Sunday, January 5, 2014


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The 1930s were a "Golden Age" of World's Fairs, when international expositions forecast an exciting world of tomorrow, filled with futuristic buildings and new technologies.

Products on display promised to solve questions of hunger and hygiene, shrink distances between people, and increase leisure time. The fairs, however, took place against a background of turmoil arising from the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism and Nazism during that decade.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Peter Clericuzio will also be teaching an undergraduate class, "World's Fairs: Design, Display and Politics, 1850-1950," in the History department at FIU, during this fall semester (HIS 4930).