Blog Assignment #1

The topic that I'm writing about is on the promise and perils from the 1939-1940 World's Fair held in New York City. The fair is significant because it was here where the idea of superhighways and suburban areas were first presented to millions of Americans who visited the Fair. It falls under the category Research Paper Idea #1 -- Science or Technology: Promise or Peril? because while the Fair presented a lot to look forward to in terms of driving for long distances on highways or getting away from the city and moving to the suburbs where there was more space, a lot of people have argued and made the case that things like pollution and an increase in carbon footprints have come about as a result of trying to emulate the visions put into place at the Fair.

The first source I am using during my research is an online blog post/ article from Huffignton Post written by Seth Bauer entitled, American Suburbia vs. the Planet. I was given this source via email from Professor Dragan, and it is mainly a disucssion about the origins of global warming and American's way of life Bauer has with an urban planner named Andres Duany. One argument being made by Dauny is that by building bigger houses, "[Americans] have eliminated a healthy civic life." He points out on how we create things like media rooms in order to avoid going public theaters that require lots of traveling and money spent. Knowledge on the fact that our way of life continues to gear us towards more harm than good is the kind of information that this blog post provides me with. 

The second source I have decided to use is a book called 1939: The Lost World of the Fair, written by David Gelernter. I found this book at the school library, thanks to the recomendation of it by Professor Dragan. What is relevant about the information given in this book is that it provides the reader with an insight of what the Fair was, the kind of things presented in it, and the level of impact it had on society. I am choosing to use this book as a source because even though I am going to argue on how the perils of the Fair far outweigh it's promise, it is important to understand what visions these people had back in the late 1930's and early 40's.  When discussing suburban living for example, Gelernter writes on how this idea that a person could “own a house, tend your plot, let your children ride their bike in the streets and hear the jinging of crickets on summer evening[s]” (Gelernter 69) was something American’s had yearn for in the years before and after the Second World War. 

It will interesting to see how well this paper develops as i find more and more sources to include in its research.

Bauer, Seth. "American Suburbia vs. the Planet." Website 18 January 2010: n.pag. Web. 19 April 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-bauer/american-suburbia-vs-the_b_426989.html>.


Gelernter, David. 1939: The Lost World of the Fair. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print.