Notes and Resources

The following articles, essays, books, films, and websites, though not all directly quoted in the text of this site, were instrumental in shaping its arguments and ideas.

For more information on American architecture of the early twentieth century, please see Building the Chrysler Building: the Social Construction of the Skyscraper by Emily Zimmerman, http://xroads.virginia.edu/g/1930s/DISPLAY/chrysler/front.html.

For more information on the Hoover Dam and megastructure projects of the New Deal era, please see The Hoover Dam: Lonely Lands Made Fruitful by Janet Haven, http://xroads.virginia.edu/g/1930s/DISPLAY/hoover/front.html.

For more information on The City and government-financed documentary films, please see Reaping the Golden Harvest: Pare Lorentz, Poet and Filmmaker by Kathleen Hogan, http://xroads.virginia.edu/g/1930s/FILM/lorentz/front.html.

For more information on world's fairs and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair specifically, please see The World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath by Julie Rose, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html. (Copyright 1996, 1997).

Other sites on the 1939-40 New York World's Fair include:

Alcos, Ricardo.  Proposal and Objective.   http://www.vdot.net/~thkr/proposal.html.   (proposal to rebuild the Trylon and Perisphere in an attempt to boost tourism on Long Island)

Anderson, Alan.  NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1939-1940.   http://websyte.com/alan/nywf.htm.   (one of the best sites available on the fair)

Hart, Jeffrey.  The Great World's Fair: The Planners' Failure.  http://www.pff.org/pff/pff10.html.   (an article published on The Progress and Freedom Foundation's website)

Hart, Jeffrey.  Greatness in Flushing Meadows.  http://www.townhall.com:80/nationalreview/21july95/hart.htm (Hart's review of Gelernter's text in National Review)

The Library of Congress.  Gottscho-Schleisner Collection.  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gschtml/gotthome.html.  (Features photographs of architecture and interior design in twentieth century America by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner.  Part of the the Library's American Memory project.)

Texts and other sites of note:

Bird, Lance and Tom Johnson, directors.  The World of Tomorrow, a film, written by John Crowley.  (New York: Media Study, 1986).

Cohen, Barbara, Steven Heller and Seymour Chwas.   Trylon and perisphere : the 1939 New York World's Fair.  (New York : Abrams, 1989).

Cooney, Terry A. Balancing Acts: American thought and Culture in the 1930s.  (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995).

Corn, Joseph and Brian Horrigan.  Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future.  (New York: Summit Books, 1984).

Doctorow, E. L.  World's Fair. (New York : Random House, c1985).

e-Bay internet auction website.  http://cayman.ebay.com/aw/index.html.

Franklin, H. Bruce.  "America as Science Fiction: 1939,"  an essay in Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. George E. Slusser, Eric S. Rabkin, Robert Scholes.  (Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983).

Fjellman, Stephen M.  Vinyl Leaves : Walt Disney World and America.  (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992).

Gelernter, David.  1939, The Lost World of the Fair.  (New York: Avon Books, 1995).

Harrison, Helen A., guest curator, essays by Joseph P. Cusker, et al.  Dawn of a New Day: the New York World's Fair, 1939/40.   (New York: Queens Museum : New York University Press, 1980).

Hart, Jeffrey.  "Yesterday's America of Tomorrow."  Commentary, Volume 80, July 1985, pp. 62-65.   (published by the American Jewish Committee).

Meikle, Jeffrey L.  Twentieth Century Limited : Industrial Design in America,
1925-1939. (Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1979).

The Museum of the City of New York. http://www.mcny.org/.   (Typically has archival photographs and drawings of the fair.) 

Rankin, Rebecca B., ed.  New York Advancing: World's Fair Edition.  (New York:  Municipal Reference Library and The Publishers Printing Company, 1939).

Remembering the Future: The New York World's Fair from 1939 to 1964.  Catalog book for The Queens Museum.  (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1989). 

Robertson, Michael.  "Cultural Hegemony Goes to the Fair: The Case of E.L. Doctorow's World's Fair."  American Studies, Volume 33, no. 1, Spring 1992, pp. 31-45.  (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas).

Rossen, Howard M. World's Fair Collectibles.  (Atglen, PA: Schiffler Publishing Ltd., 1998).

Rydell, Robert W.  Exhibition review of "Selling the World of Tomorrow: New York's 1939 World's Fair," a 1990 exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  The Journal of American History, v. 77, Dec. 1990, pp. 966-20.  (Bloomington, IN: Organization of American Historians).

Scenes of the New York World's Fair for 1940, from World's Fair Archival Video, Volume One.  (Corrales, NM: New Deal Films, Inc., 1991).

Susman, Warren I.  Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century.  (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984).

Wilson, Richard Guy with Dianne H. Pilgrim and Dickran Tashjian.  The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941.   (New York: Brooklyn Museum in association with Abrams, 1986).

Wurts, Richard and Stanley Applebaum, et. al.   The New York World's Fair 1939/1940 in 155 photographs by Richard Wurts and Others.  (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1977).