Fleeting Cities: Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe

by Alexander C.T. Geppert

Overview

Imperial expositions held in fin-de-siècle London, Paris and Berlin were knots in a world wide web. Conceptualizing expositions as meta-media, Fleeting Cities constitutes a transnational and transdisciplinary investigation into how modernity was created and displayed, consumed and disputed in the European metropolis around 1900.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349960965
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/11/2024
Edition description:	2nd ed. 2024
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Alexander C. Geppert is Emmy Noether Research Group Director at Freie Universität Berlin. He received his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and has held fellowships in Berkeley, Paris, London, Vienna, Essen and at Harvard University. At present he is writing a book on the cultural history of outer space in the European imagination of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: How to Read an Exposition,- 2. Berlin 1896: Wilhelm II, Georg Simmel, and the Berliner Gewerbeausstellung.- 3. Paris 1900: The Exposition universelle as a Century's Protean Synthesis.- 4. London 1908: Imre Kiralfy and the Franco-British Exhibition.- 5. Wembley 1924: The British Empire Exhibition as a Suburban Metropolis.- 6. Vincennes 1931: The Exposition coloniale as the Apotheosis of Imperial Modernity.- 7. Conclusion: Exhibition Fatigue, or the Rise and Fall of a Mass Medium.- Coda: Pictures at an Exhibition.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Shortlisted for the Longman - History Today Book Prize 2010

"If I were to recommend only one book about nineteenth- and early twentieth-century international expositions, it would be this one. Geppert's writing is clear, his learning is massive but never in the way, and his subject the spaces and places of world's fairs becomes in his hands a way of thinking about the self-reflexive and self-referential qualities of modernity. Fleeting Cities is an exemplary cultural and institutional history of one of the most talked about, glitzy new media phenomena of their age." - Thomas W. Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley, USA

"Fleeting Cities vividly and authoritatively demonstrates how European exhibitions formed an integral part of the material and mental urban environment which they helped to shape. It is a model of transnational, comparative history, attentive to the architectural grammar, social imaginaries, and political histories of these urban installations." - Judith R. Walkowitz, Johns Hopkins University, USA

"A careful reading of the complex history of international exhibitions. As a social theorist, the author presents a brilliant analysis of the writings of Georg Simmel, the German cultural philosopher, on exhibitions, as well as his confrontation with Wilhelm II on the subject of exhibitions and the German cultural and national ideology." - Aram A.Yengoyan, University of California, Davis, USA

"Geppert has succeeded in writing five worthwhile, brilliant essays on five 'late' major exhibitions held in the European metropoles, all based on a commanding knowledge of his sources and the (by now rampant) secondary literature." - Daniel Mollenhauer, Sehepunkte

"This is an important and ambitious study which will serve as a valuable resource of reference for future students of the subject. It is extremely well illustrated and supported with plenty of useful graphs, appendices, and an extensive bibliography." - Jill Steward, H-Net Reviews

"A successful Gesamtkunstwerk and a pleasure to read." - Klaus Dittrich, Comparativ

"Geppert has elegantly fathomed and brought new perspectives to the subject of international exhibitions. He has succeeded in producing an enormously stimulating contribution to a transnational history of modernity in the age of metropoles." - Martin Baumeister, Historische Zeitschrift

"Can an author move forward the theoretical discussion? In the case of Alexander C. T. Geppert's Fleeting Cities, the answer to those queries is yes. This book breaks new ground . . . Geppert throws down the scholarly gauntlet on his book's first page . . . Geppert's work will . . . attract those captivated by how we study exhibitions and modernity and by the modern history of Europe's 'great' cities specifically, Berlin, Paris, and London. He has discovered strange but true facts and things that never were . . . as well as things that were but about which we know very little, if anything. Geppert illuminates . . . [An] ambitious effort to transform network analysis . . . [A] fascinating monograph." - Peter H. Hoffenberg, The Journal of Modern History

"An admirably researched and well-written monograph that clearly indicates the subtle messages to be read beneath the glitz of these spectacular festivals. Above all, it exemplifies the insights that fresh scholarship in textual and representational analysis can bring to the study of events long recognized as landmarks in both cultural and urban history." - John R. Gold, The London Journal

"At its best, Geppert's text presents the possibility for theoretical interpretations while simultaneously undermining their reasonableness . . . The strength of Geppert's book is in highly detailed and vivid presentation of the events and their surrounding culture. Fleeting Cities is the result of painstaking first-hand research of a scope that has previously eluded any individual scholar." - Robert Proctor, Planning Perspectives

"Authoritative . . . As elsewhere, Geppert's research here is rich and probing; it adds significantly to our understanding and certainly helps correct other scholars' more speculative interpretations." Mark Crinson, History Workshop Journal

"Unique [ ]. Fleeting Cities offers an ambitious and engaging study of imperial expositions of fin-de-siècle Europe, tracing the medium's nuances and numerous metaphors, and succeeding in its premise to provide a fresh close reading of the contemporary impact and urban legacy of the complex network of exhibitions." - Sophie Franklin, London School of Economics and Political Science

Editorial Reviews

Shortlisted for the Longman - History Today Book Prize 2010

"If I were to recommend only one book about nineteenth- and early twentieth-century international expositions, it would be this one. Geppert's writing is clear, his learning is massive but never in the way, and his subject the spaces and places of world's fairs becomes in his hands a way of thinking about the self-reflexive and self-referential qualities of modernity. Fleeting Cities is an exemplary cultural and institutional history of one of the most talked about, glitzy new media phenomena of their age." - Thomas W. Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley, USA

"Fleeting Cities vividly and authoritatively demonstrates how European exhibitions formed an integral part of the material and mental urban environment which they helped to shape. It is a model of transnational, comparative history, attentive to the architectural grammar, social imaginaries, and political histories of these urban installations." - Judith R. Walkowitz, Johns Hopkins University, USA

"A careful reading of the complex history of international exhibitions. As a social theorist, the author presents a brilliant analysis of the writings of Georg Simmel, the German cultural philosopher, on exhibitions, as well as his confrontation with Wilhelm II on the subject of exhibitions and the German cultural and national ideology." - Aram A.Yengoyan, University of California, Davis, USA

"Geppert has succeeded in writing five worthwhile, brilliant essays on five 'late' major exhibitions held in the European metropoles, all based on a commanding knowledge of his sources and the (by now rampant) secondary literature." - Daniel Mollenhauer, Sehepunkte

"This is an important and ambitious study which will serve as a valuable resource of reference for future students of the subject. It is extremely well illustrated and supported with plenty of useful graphs, appendices, and an extensive bibliography." - Jill Steward, H-Net Reviews

"A successful Gesamtkunstwerk and a pleasure to read." - Klaus Dittrich, Comparativ

"Geppert has elegantly fathomed and brought new perspectives to the subject of international exhibitions. He has succeeded in producing an enormously stimulating contribution to a transnational history of modernity in the age of metropoles." - Martin Baumeister, Historische Zeitschrift

"Can an author move forward the theoretical discussion? In the case of Alexander C. T. Geppert's Fleeting Cities, the answer to those queries is yes. This book breaks new ground . . . Geppert throws down the scholarly gauntlet on his book's first page . . . Geppert's work will . . . attract those captivated by how we study exhibitions and modernity and by the modern history of Europe's 'great' cities specifically, Berlin, Paris, and London. He has discovered strange but true facts and things that never were . . . as well as things that were but about which we know very little, if anything. Geppert illuminates . . . [An] ambitious effort to transform network analysis . . . [A] fascinating monograph." - Peter H. Hoffenberg, The Journal of Modern History

"An admirably researched and well-written monograph that clearly indicates the subtle messages to be read beneath the glitz of these spectacular festivals. Above all, it exemplifies the insights that fresh scholarship in textual and representational analysis can bring to the study of events long recognized as landmarks in both cultural and urban history." - John R. Gold, The London Journal

"At its best, Geppert's text presents the possibility for theoretical interpretations while simultaneously undermining their reasonableness . . . The strength of Geppert's book is in highly detailed and vivid presentation of the events and their surrounding culture. Fleeting Cities is the result of painstaking first-hand research of a scope that has previously eluded any individual scholar." - Robert Proctor, Planning Perspectives

"Authoritative . . . As elsewhere, Geppert's research here is rich and probing; it adds significantly to our understanding and certainly helps correct other scholars' more speculative interpretations." Mark Crinson, History Workshop Journal

"Unique [ ]. Fleeting Cities offers an ambitious and engaging study of imperial expositions of fin-de-siècle Europe, tracing the medium's nuances and numerous metaphors, and succeeding in its premise to provide a fresh close reading of the contemporary impact and urban legacy of the complex network of exhibitions." - Sophie Franklin, London School of Economics and Political Science

From the Publisher