The Devil in the White City attempts to contrast the glorious achievements of Burnham and Root transforming windswept swampland on the shores of Lake Michigan with the despicable activities of one of America’s most vile serial killers. Both entities constructed edifices to exacting specifications: A fair to delight the public and establish Chicago as a world class city and a "murder palace" to satisfy murderous desires. The book shows the loss of America’s innocence in both a good and bad w
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Although the Chicago World’s fair of 1893 only lasted 6 months‚ I had an enormous impact on the city of Chicago‚ its people‚ and indeed the entire country. Up until that point in its history‚ the US had done nothing on the scale of the world’s fair‚ and was regarded as a country of barbarians and cowboys by much of the world‚ especially Old Europe. The fair was a perfect way for the US to disprove this. In building the fair‚ they would be placed in direct competition with France‚ who had built a
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The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction book that brings to life the building of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The book talks about a serial killer named H.H Holmes who wins people over with his charm. He is very persuasive and kills people for their life insurance money. Throughout the whole book people come from all over the world to see the World’s Fair in Chicago‚ and Holmes uses this to his advantage. Daniel Burnham is the head architect in charge of building the entire fair. Throughout
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Victor Romo 17 April 2012 Larson‚ Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder‚ Magic‚ and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. New York: Vintage‚ 2004. 447 Pages. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a book centered around the events of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. This book features a dual storyline following the events of Daniel Burnham and his involvement in the architectural design of the World’s Fair‚ and Dr. H H Holmes‚ a man using Chicago and the World’s Fair
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By JANET MASLIN Published: February 10‚ 2003 THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY Murder‚ Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America By Erik Larson Illustrated. 447 pages. Crown Publishers. $25.95. As part of his research for ’’The Devil in the White City’’ Erik Larson visited the part of Graceland cemetery where members of Chicago’s turn-of-the-century elite are enshrined. As he puts it‚ ’’On a crystalline fall day you can almost hear the tinkle of fine crystal‚ the rustle of silk
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Devil in the White City Book Summary The Devil in the White City‚ written by Eric Larson‚ is a gripping novel of two polar opposite men during the building of the World’s Fair in Chicago. It surrounds two characters‚ both extremely talented at their ‘craft’ and perfectly depicts the rush for industrialization in this time. It follows the lives of Daniel H. Burnham‚ the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures‚ and Henry H. Holmes‚ a serial
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The Devil in the White City Dialectical Journal #1 “Events and people captured his attention the way moving objects caught the notice of an amphibian: first a machinelike registration of proximity‚ next a calculation of worth‚ and last a decision to act or remain motionless” (Larson 37). Erik Larson uses clinical diction to describe to the reader how Holmes mechanically functions and how he perceives the world. The use of the phrase “a decision to act or remain motionless” creates an impression
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successful works into their own creations. The White Devil is a play that is inherently a combination of elements from other plays from the renaissance era. Webster borrows so many elements from other plays that readings of his very own play almost immediately call for a compare and contrast situation. This borrowing is most commonly seen with other authors using hints of Shakespeare in their own work. It is easy to see hints of Othello in The White Devil‚ although Webster’s work is not nearly as successful
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Good Versus Evil The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson depicts that wherever there is good‚ there is evil as well. The note included by Larson‚ ¨Evils Imminent¨ depicts this: ¨Beneath the gore and smoke and loam‚ this book is about the evanescence of life‚ and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible‚ others in the manufacture of sorrow¨ (pg. xi). Larso shows this conflict of good and evil by comparing the two main characters‚ Daniel Burnham and Henry
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The Devil in the White City: Murder‚ Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America is a detailed look at the climate and events surrounding the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago‚ Illinois. This time period ushered in a new era of architectural and cultural changes throughout the country. This book was written by Erik Larson‚ is 447 pages long‚ and was published by Crown Publishers in February 2003. I chose this book because I had heard from friends and family that it was an interesting
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