Question Description

*Please Read info then answer problem below completely. 1 page, single space. WIll only accept complete work that addresses the central questions in the prompt, provide details (e.g…specific names, places, dates, terms)

1.) After a visit to the White City at the Chicago’s Worlds Fair in 1893, one reporter wrote: “Even people of small means should not recoil from the expense of a journey which in these hard times they may consider an extravagance, and they should not fail to bestow upon other children the boon of enlightenment and ennobling impressions which this grand spectacle conveys, and which in all likelihood this will be the only opportunity in their lives to receive and enjoy.” Reflecting on his visit to the Fair, a New York senator noted that it was “Midway Plaisance that [was] a peculiar attraction.” He continued: “It presents Asiatic and African and other forms of life native to the inhabitants of the globe. It is the world in miniature. While it is of doubtful attractiveness for morality, it certainly emphasizes the value, as well as the progress, of our civilization. There are presented on the Midway real and typical representatives of nearly all the races of the earth, living in their natural methods, practicing their home arts, and presenting their so-called native amusements. The denizens of the Midway certainly present an interesting study to the ethnologist, and give the observer an opportunity to investigate these barbarous and semi-civilized people without the unpleasant accompaniments of travel through their countries and contact with them.” 

Problem:

 To what extent do these observers’ comments reflect various forces (ie…ideologies, societal, economic) at work in late nineteenth/early twentieth century America? To what extent and in what ways did the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893 symbolize the Gilded Age/Progressive Era?