Book review: Fleeting cities: imperial expositions in fin-de-siècle Europe by Alexander Geppert

"Fleeting Cities: Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe." Alexander C. T. Geppert. Palgrave Macmillan. October 2013. --- In this book, Alexander C. T. Geppert considers how modernity was created and displayed at imperial expositions held in fin-de-siècle London, Paris and Berlin. Focusing on five such expositions – the Berliner Gewerbeausstellung (1896), the fifth Parisian Exposition Universelle (1900), the Franco-British Exhibition in London (1908), the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924/25), and the Exposition Coloniale Internationale in Paris (1931) – this book focuses on their specific aims and aspirations, evolving forms and execution, and the public debates they engendered. Sophie Franklin finds this book an ambitious and engaging study that also provides a fresh close reading of the contemporary impact and urban legacy of the complex network of exhibitions.