All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916

A groundbreaking account of the ways the United States used world's fairs to extend its empire abroad and racial hierarchies at home

In All the World's a Fair, Robert W. Rydell argues that America's nineteenth-century world's fairs served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad. He looks in particular to the "ethnological" displays of nonwhites--set up by showmen but endorsed by prominent anthropologists--which lent scientific credibility to popular racial attitudes and helped build public support for domestic and foreign policies. Rydell's lively and thought-provoking study draws on archival records, newspaper and magazine articles, guidebooks, popular novels, and oral histories to tell a new story of American history and empire.