TomorrowLand, Joseph Tirella
TomorrowLand, Joseph Tirella
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Tomorrow-Land
The 1964–65 World’s Fair and the Transformation of America

Author: Joseph Tirella

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 12 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/07/2014

Synopsis

Motivated by the idea of turning Flushing Meadows, literally a land of refuse, into his greatest public park, Robert Moses—New York's "master builder"—brought the World's Fair to the Big Apple for 1964 and '65. Though considered a financial failure, the 1964/65 World's Fair was a sixties flash point in areas from politics to pop culture, technology to urban planning, and civil rights to violent crime.In an epic narrative, Tomorrow-Land shows the astonishing pivots taken by New York City, America, and the world during the fair. It fetched Disney's empire from California and Michelangelo's La Piet├á from Europe and displayed flickers of innovation from Ford, GM, and NASA—from undersea and outer-space colonies to personal computers. It housed the controversial work of Warhol (until Governor Rockefeller had it removed) and lured Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Meanwhile, the fair—and its house band, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians—sat in the musical shadows of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, who changed rock and roll right there in Queens. And as southern civil rights efforts turned deadly, and violent protests also occurred in and around the fair, Harlem-based Malcolm X predicted a frightening future of inner-city racial conflict.World's Fairs have always been collisions of eras, cultures, nations, technologies, ideas, and art. But the trippy, turbulent, Technicolor, Disney, corporate, and often misguided 1964/65 fair was truly exceptional.

About Joseph Tirella

Joseph Tirella wrote about the borough of Queens for the New York Times’ much-missed City section and penned pieces for the paper’s Metro and Business sections. A former senior editor at Fortune Small Business, his work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Esquire, the New York Post, and MSN.com.

About Joe Barrett

Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kressel

I grew up a few miles away from Flushing Meadow Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, so I picked up this book just for a little Queens history. It turned out to be much more than that; it was one of the best retrospectives on the Sixties I’ve ever read. The reason it was so effective w......more

Goodreads review by Florence

In the fall of 1964 I journeyed to New York's Flushing Meadow with my Philadelphia Germantown High School classmates to see the World's Fair. That was more than 50 years ago! I was hoping this book would refresh my memory and bring some of the exhibits back to life. A few memories stirred: riding pa......more

Goodreads review by Marti

Yes, another book about a World's Fair (having just finished one about the Pan American Expo in 1900). This book is not really about the fair itself as much as it is about the pivotal years 1964/1965 and how all the controversies over civil rights and skyrocketing crime rates gave Robert Moses apopl......more

Goodreads review by Jay

The Worlds Fair, held in 1963-65 in New York, is the platform on which author Tirella investigates a few interesting aspects of the times. The author describes the creation and building of the fair, focusing on Robert Moses, and telling his story as a political builder. The author then tells of civi......more

Goodreads review by Viridian5

In the midst of Robert Moses creating a 1964-65 World's Fair showing a Tomorrow-Land, with the idea of using the no doubt massive profits to turn Flushing Meadows Corona Park into the crown jewel of his park system, the US was changing faster and in ways he didn't expect or often acknowledge. It was......more

Quotes

“In an interesting and original way, Joseph Tirella has used the storied setting of the 1964/65 World’s Fair in New York to describe the entrepreneurial spirit, the criminal nature, the egalitarian tendencies, and inevitable compromises that characterized a complex and important period in the history of the city and the nation.” Gay Talese, New York Times bestselling author

“Tirella explores the contrast between the purported idealism of the 1964 World’s Fair and the conflict and compromise that surrounded the event…The Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, rising urban crime, and racial strife provide the backdrop for Tirella’s detailed history.” New York Times Book Review

“Tirella’s story flows with a wealth of historical content that reveals how strongly the World’s Fair reflected the times. He covers, for example, the rise of Malcolm X, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles, and how the fair highlighted new inventions, including color TVs and shiny Ford Mustangs. Walt Disney even introduced concepts there that ended up in his nascent Florida theme park, including a ride-around-the-world exhibit filled with tiny singing dolls. Yes, it was a small world, after all.” Booklist

“[Tirella] adroitly switches focus from Moses and the fair to external events in the city, nation, and world and back again, following several disparate threads…and never losing control of the narrative’s forward momentum. With a huge cast of characters that includes Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, and the Pope, the World’s Fair provides an excellent perspective on the 1960s in America. Top-notch popular history.” Kirkus Reviews

“This book is filled with fascinating stories about global political contests between the Soviet Union and the United States, domestic protests against social inequality, the politics of massive resistance waged by conservatives of both major parties, corporations playing social-engineering games, America becoming a multicultural nation, and New York City experiencing massive physical change. Joseph Tirella’s Tomorrow-Land takes us back in time fifty years and documents through thorough research and wonderful narrative how the World’s Fair fell short of its goal to promote, ‘Peace through Understanding’ but still managed to give America an accurate vision of its future self.” Brian Purnell, Africana studies and history, Bowdoin College, and author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings

“As much a history of mid-sixties America as it is a history of the World’s Fair in Queens, New York, Joseph Tirella’s entertaining and impeccably researched Tomorrow-Land brings the forces and players of that turbulent era crackling to life.” Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion

“With Tomorrow-Land, Joseph Tirella makes a riveting case for Queens, New York, as the origin of all that is great and modern in today’s America. If you’ve ever wondered what Robert Moses, Andy Warhol, and Malcolm X have in common, this book connects the dots and more. Tirella breathes in all the tumult and cultural vertigo surrounding the 1964 World’s Fair and exhales an intoxicating swirl of pure possibility.” Alec Foege, author of The Tinkerers

Awards

  • Barnes & Noble Discover Award
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