This course examines the role world exhibitions in the creation of national identities across Europe from the nineteenth into the twentieth century. From the mid-nineteenth century, starting with the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, there were numerous international exhibitions that showcased industrial and technical innovation. Displayed commodities, technologies and colonial subjects represented the assumed power and statue of competing nations as well as the wide reach of ascendant European imperialism. These events were of an ephemeral nature, however, they also shaped the cities in which they were held. This block seminar will use both primary and secondary materials (in English, German and French) to examine the evolution of international exhibitions in the context of the role of nationalism and imperialism as identity markers within modern (and modernizing) societies. It will examine topics such as the layout of exhibitions, exhibition programs, food at exhibitions, transportation, human-exhibits, colonial exhibitions and technologies. Through following developments in technologies and exhibition practices from the exhibitions in London (1851) to Hannover (2000), this course will critically examine exhibitions as dynamic sites of identity formation and will provide a framework for understanding the contested and evolving ideas of 'Europe' as well as its multifaceted connections to the ‘modern’ world.