Book Report On The Devil In The White City

The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson’s historical nonfiction book, The Devil in the White City, uses well over one hundred historical sources to piece together a vivid depiction of The World’s Columbian Exposition and the high stakes of its improbable success in the middle of America’s most vice-filled city of opportunity, all the while the infamous “Torture Doctor,” H. H. Holmes, hides in the shadows. Ultimately, the author portrays gilded age America as a place of wonder and terror, of progress and primacy, and of indulgence and poverty.

The Chicago World’s fair was intended to showcase the artistry and refinement of the American population and the worth of Chicago as a leading city in just over three years. Its construction was fraught with peril, including the death of leading architect John Root, the collapse of the manufacture and liberal arts building, the increasingly concerning Panic of 1893, and, most worrisome, the crushing press of time. Meanwhile, through the myriad of misfortunes, a man under the alias of H. H. Holmes arrived and,

through a series of frauds and adept skills at lying, built himself a hotel just beside the fairgrounds and installed hidden gas chambers, secret passages, and a superheated furnace, preparing for the massive crowds that would soon arrive.
The World’s fair was miraculously completed just in time for its exhibition in May, and the public was stunned by its amazing display of American ingenuity and gorgeous neoclassical architecture.

Novelties and inventions such as Shredded Wheat, Cracker Jack, and incandescent light bulbs were introduced while renowned individuals like Buffalo Bill, Jane Addams, and Archduke Francis Ferdinand made appearances. However, ticket sales did not really explode until the completion of the first Ferris Wheel by George Ferris. Because of this marvel, the fair drew in a record of 751,026 people in a single day despite impending national panic. But with the beauty of the fair came a burst of vice and crime, including the murders of at least five young women by Holmes in his “murder castle.” As much as Chicago was a city of opportunity, it was easy among the excited crowds and marvelous exhibits to vanish and never be heard from

again.
The plan was to have the Exposition go out with a massive celebration, but Chicago’s mayor, Carter Harrison, was murdered by a delusional office-seeker, and the fair closed somberly. Still a massive success worldwide, the fair broke records and captivated the public, but eventually fell into disrepair and much of it was destroyed by arsonists. Holmes himself was eventually arrested and executed after detective Frank Geyer uncovered the bodies of the dead Pietzel family and unveiled the true operation of his World’s Fair Hotel.
The end of the fair brought disillusionment and misfortune to the associates of the fair in the following years, from unfortunate death to financial ruin to familial estrangement. Similar tragic accidents occurred to those individuals involved with the Holmes-Pietzel case, leading to speculation about Holmes’s claim to have been “born with the Devil” inside him. That any of these events are connected is known, but the duality of Chicago’s nature as a place of life and death, its juxtaposition of the lovely and the damned, and the true nature of humanity has never been made so evident as in the beauty and tragedy of the Columbian Exposition.