Sesqui! : greed, graft, and the forgotten world's fair of 1926 / Thomas H. Keels.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keels, Thomas H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition (1926 : Philadelphia, Pa.).

Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition.

Physical Description:

xxix, 368 pages : illustrations, map, portraits, facsimile ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2017.

Summary:

In 1916, department store magnate and Grand Old Philadelphian John Wanamaker launched plans for a Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in his hometown in 1926. It would be a magnificent world's fair to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Wanamaker hoped that the "Sesqui" would also transform sooty, industrial Philadelphia into a beautiful Beaux-Arts city. However, when the Sesqui opened on May 31, 1926, in the remote, muddy swamps of South Philadelphia, the first visitors were stunned to find an unfinished fair, with a few shabbily built and mostly empty structures. Crowds stayed away in droves: fewer than five million paying customers attended the Sesqui, costing the city millions of dollars. Philadelphia became a national scandal-a city so corrupt that one political boss could kidnap an entire world's fair. In his fascinating history Sesqui!, noted historian Thomas Keels situates this ill-fated celebration-a personal boondoggle by the all-powerful Congressman William S. Vare-against the transformations taking place in America during the 1920s. Keels provides a comprehensive account of the Sesqui as a meeting ground for cultural changes sweeping the country: women's and African-American rights, anti-Semitism, eugenics, Prohibition, and technological advances.

Contents:

Philadelphia, 1916

As welcome as jazz music at a funeral

The Sesqui stinks

Call me freel

The Sesqui moves south

Philadelphia progressive

Kendrick's karnival

A fine thing to show the nation

We're all good Americans now

The ladies of the street

The philadelphia negro at the Sesqui

The fight of the century and a half

A royal visit

Follies of 1926

For sale:one Sesqui.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Keels, Thomas H. Sesqui!

ISBN:

9781439903292

1439903298

OCLC:

948339528

Publisher Number:

40026973726