The world's fair of 1915 celebrated both the completion of the
Panama Canal and the rebuilding of San Francisco following the
devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. The exposition spotlighted
the canal and the city as gateways to the Pacific, where the
American empire could now expand after its victory in the
Spanish-American War. "Empire on Display "is the first book to
examine the Panama-Pacific International Exposition through the
lenses of art history and cultural studies, focusing on the event's
expansionist and masculinist symbolism.
The exposition displayed evidence--visual, spatial, geographic,
cartographic, and ideological--of America's imperial ambitions and
accomplishments. Representations of the Panama Canal play a central
role in Moore's argument, much as they did at the fair itself.
Embodying a manly empire of global dimensions, the canal was
depicted in statues and a gigantic working replica, as well as on
commemorative stamps, maps, murals, postcards, medals, and
advertisements." "Just as San Francisco's rebuilding symbolized
America's will to overcome the forces of nature, the Panama Canal
represented the triumph of U.S. technology and sheer determination
to realize the centuries-old dream of opening a passage between the
seas.
Extensively illustrated, Moore's book vividly recalls many other
features of the fair, including a seventy-five-foot-tall Uncle Sam.
American railroads, in their heyday in 1915, contributed a
five-acre scale model of Yellowstone, complete with miniature
geysers that erupted at regular intervals. A mini-Grand Canyon
featured a village where some twenty Pueblo Indians lived
throughout the fair.
Moore interprets these visual and cultural artifacts as layered
narratives of progress, civilization, social Darwinism, and
manliness. Much as the globe had ostensibly shrunk with the
completion of the Panama Canal, the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition compressed the world and represented it in miniature to
celebrate a reinvigorated, imperial, masculine, and technologically
advanced nation. As San Francisco bids to host another world's
fair, in 2020, Moore's rich analytic approach gives readers much to
ponder about symbolism, American identity, and contemporary
parallels to the past.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!