The last universal and international exhibition organised by Belgium was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958. Approximately 18 million visitors thronged to visit the numerous pavilions of the ephemeral town that seemed to bring to life the old utopian dream of an ideal city where progress and fraternity among peoples contributed to creating peace and prosperity among mankind. The purpose of this book, with its focus on the multitude of players and participants in Expo 58, is to delve back once more into the context of this amazing spectacle, to open a window on the history of Belgium at the end of the 1950s. The book is an endeavour to decipher how an event that was simultaneously political, economical, social and cultural, in fact, a colossal enterprise, became the witness of its period. A mirror of a society in transition, Expo 58 reflected not only the economic, technological and urban modernity that heralded the prosperity of the Golden Sixties, but also the permanent nature of traditional social systems: the relationships between the sexes, between the colonisers and the colonised, and between the generations. In a more subtle manner - or even raucously - Expo 58 also revealed a glimpse of the spirit of the 1960s that was already present. It was in fact possible to perceive the veiled presence of the premises of an evolution in the mentality that several years later would shatter the certainties and conventions that were still alive and well in the Belgium of 1958, busy celebrating the end of the hardships experienced during wartime.