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In 1939, exhausted by a decade-long depression, Americans faced
a brewing European conflict that would prove to be the most destructive war in
history. At this dark juncture, a World's Fair was held in New York City that
evoked such acute hope in its promise of a glorious future that a whole generation
was drawn to it and transformed by its vision. People came from all over the world
to see the fair, and it was not uncommon for many to attend ten, twenty, even
thirty times. There, the awed spectators gazed at a utopian world of superhighways,
spacious suburbs and other technological wonders. As David Gelernter brilliantly
recounts in 1939, it was a future that has largely come to pass, but one
that, in its realization, has drained us of the very pride and hope that were
so palpable at the fair itself. In 1939, Gelernter gives us a virtual reality
picture of the World's Fair and the passionate feelings it still evokes in those
who were there. In entering that picture, we gain a clearer understanding of why
our future stands in such dark contrast to the glittering utopian vision of 1939.
David Gelernter is professor of computer science at Yale
University and the author of The Muse in the Machine. He lives in Woodbridge,
Connecticut. |
