Episode 4: Helter Skelter

Echoes of Expo

1974 proved a watershed year for America - the Vietnam War was on its dying breath, the Watergate scandal rocked the nation's faith in government, the Civil Rights Movement raged on, and the Cold War persisted. Episode four zooms out from Spokane to examine how geopolitical dynamics, pivotal national events, and cultural shifts shaped this global Fair.

“Expo 74 opens at this weird time. This is at a period of just rapid and drastic social change. I mean, the seventies are kind of this, to co-opt the Beatles, Helter Skelter period. There's all kinds of things happening.”

- Anna Harbine, archivist at The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture