{"product_id":"9781439903292","title":"Sesqui!: Greed, Graft, and the Forgotten World's Fair of 1926","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1916, Philadelphia department-store magnate John Wanamaker launched plans for a Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in 1926. It would be a magnificent world's fair to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The “Sesqui” would also transform sooty, industrial Philadelphia into a beautiful Beaux Arts city.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, when the Sesqui opened on May 31, 1926, in the remote, muddy swamps of South Philadelphia, the fair was unfinished, with a few shabbily built and mostly empty structures. Crowds stayed away in droves: fewer than five million paying customers attended, 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his fascinating history \u003ci\u003eSesqui!, \u003c\/i\u003enoted 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Temple University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47054319780080,"sku":"9781439903292","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781439903292_p0.jpg?v=1763786860","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781439903292","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}