Little Egypt Summary

The story of Little Egypt has traversed cultures and borders. In a quest for information, Donna Carlton has travelled back in time in an effort to reveal the myth of the so-called Little Egypt at the time of the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1983, only to encounter more interesting stories about her fictitious character. The obsession with orientalism and the images of femmes fatales has haunted many Americans since the time of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, as these images have become widely rumored. At the time it first surfaced, oriental dance and its sensual body movements shocked the relatively prim middle class Americans. La danse du venture, known as the belly dance, was first introduced in Midway Plaisance during the fair, and
Carlton offers several collections of historical photographs and illustrations that make her book worth reading for historians, as well as oriental dancers and choreographers. She critically studies the nineteenth century’s period of arts and traces it to the contemporary Eastern dance, looking for possible clues to find likely lineage to Little Egypt, but all to no avail (84). Carlton also presents thought provoking ideas on the issues of racism and the marginalization of women. In this regard, Carlton claims that the white supremacists view Middle Eastern and other cultures from a very ethnocentric angle. According to Carlton, the president of the Board of Lady at the fair says on one occasion, in protest, that oriental dancers “are ignorant and I think we owe it to our cause that we visit these women … [and] teach them our ways and manners” (25). The general public perception regarding Middle Eastern dance is flawed and Carlton takes a bold stance against such a perception. This is considered as a remarkable feat in enlightening the general Western populace with the true principles of Middle Eastern cultures and art
However, I consider her book a remarkable collection of history and art forms from that time. Readers who are interested in orientalism and belly dance or the history of the Chicago Columbian Exposition would certainly enjoy reading this book, as it highlights interesting stories about the fair and the effect of the oriental dancing, including the Western fantasies and perceptions that still haunt many Americans to this day. Since Carlton is not a professional historian, I hope the wealth of primary sources collected during this impressive effort would invite historians to further investigate the mysteries of Little Egypt, as Carlton has successfully compiled enough sources to spark their interest and fuel their