{"product_id":"2017-pa-books-sesqui-greed-graft-and-the-forgotten-worlds-fair-of-1926","title":"2017 PA Books: Sesqui!: Greed, Graft, and the Forgotten World's Fair of 1926","description":"In 1916, department store magnate and Grand Old Philadelphian John Wanamaker launched plans for a Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in his hometown in 1926. It would be a magnificent world's fair to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Wanamaker hoped that the \"Sesqui\" would also transform sooty, industrial Philadelphia into a beautiful Beaux-Arts city. However, when the Sesqui opened on May 31, 1926, in the remote, muddy swamps of South Philadelphia, the first visitors were stunned to find an unfinished fair, with a few shabbily built and mostly empty structures. Crowds stayed away in droves: fewer than five million paying customers attended the Sesqui, 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. In his fascinating history Sesqui!, noted 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.\n\n\n\nThomas H. Keels is a historian and lecturer who has authored or co-authored seven books and numerous articles on Philadelphia history. A confirmed taphophile, Keels has been a tour guide at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia's premier Victorian necropolis, for two decades.\n\n\n\nDescription courtesy of Temple University Press.","brand":"PCN","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":67976216772912,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":67976216805680,"sku":null,"price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/3922\/0272\/files\/360aaaf0-SHOP-PCN-HISTORY-CULTURE-WEB-BUTTON-2019-10-15T122909.391.png?v=1791470972","url":"https:\/\/shop.pcntv.com\/products\/2017-pa-books-sesqui-greed-graft-and-the-forgotten-worlds-fair-of-1926","provider":"PCN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}