The End of the Innocence - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair

From April to October in 1964 and again in 1965, some 52 million people from around the world flocked to the New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.  While some critics derided the Fair as the “ugly duckling” of global expositions and others pointed to the controversial role of World’s Fair president Robert Moses, the Fair itself was for the great majority of visitors an overwhelmingly positive, often inspirational, and sometimes transcendent experience that truly delivered on its theme of “peace through understanding.”  Join Lawrence R. Samuel, author, cultural historian, and former Smithsonian Institution Fellow as he examines the legacy of the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair as a seminal event that offered its visitors sanctuary from the cultural storms that were rapidly approaching mid-1960s America.  Books will be available for purchase and signing.