Erik Larson's The Devil In The White City

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The Devil in the White City Writing Erik Larson’s book, The Devil in the White City, tells the two historically accurate and separate stories of Dr. H. H. Holmes and Daniel H. Burnham. Architect Daniel H. Burnham and his partner John Root are trusted to oversee the creation of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which became known as the White City. Dr. H. H. Holmes on the other hand was in reality, a murderer, using the White City to prey on his victims by opening what he coined the “World’s Fair Hotel.” While seemingly separate stories, these two are linked by their resemblance to the “Gilded” portion of the Gilded Age and the creation of the White City. To be gilded is to cover a rotten core in gold to hide its imperfections, and that can be seen quite clearly in both of …show more content…

222). This reflects the sentiment perfectly, showing Burnham knowingly hiding the cheap materials which will rot quickly in white paint to make it appear expensive and well built in the same way that rotted materials are knowingly covered up in gold to become Gilded. There are quite a few parts of the World fair which represent the “rotten” portion of being Gilded. A good example of this is an event where after a fire in the Cold Storage Building, insurance underwriters took a closer look at the construction of the building, and were so horrified by what they saw “Seven insurers canceled their policies” (p. 278). Later on the same page, the acting fire chief of the World’s Fair Fire Department, Marshal Edward W. Murphy, claimed “That building gives us more trouble than any structure of the grounds. It’s a miserable firetrap and will go up in smoke before long” in front of a group of insurance underwriters (p

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