In Erik Larson’s novel The Devil in the White City takes place during the Gilded Age. During this period of time everything appears good and golden on the outside when in reality everything was full of corruption. In the novel, the author takes the reader to the city of Chicago, where the city is “swelled “in population causing the city to expand in all “available directions” (Larson 44). As Chicago became the “second most populous [city] in the nation after New York” there was an urge that city show off to the world and the nation of how great it was through the Chicago World’s Fair (Larson 44). The Chicago World’s Fair was an opportunity for the city to come together and create event so spectacular to shock the world. However, as Chicago prepared to awe people with this extravagant fair the city faced skepticism on weather or not issues of urbanization, sanitation, and crime would be fixed in time for the World’s Fair.
In beginning of the novel, Larson takes the reader back to the start before Chicago wins the bid for the World’s fair to be held in Chicago. The idea of the World’s Fair in the United
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Chicago was seen by outsiders as a land of opportunity the same way our founding fathers saw America as the land of new beginnings. Individuals all across the nation spoke of Chicago as having a “spirit” of it own and “tangible force” that was similar to the American dream (Larson 16). As people spoke so highly of Chicago and its technology, it still did not escape the criticism from other states about how the city would not be able to handle organizing a World’s fair. When the grounds of the World’s Fair were ere being prepared in Jackson Park, Chicago, the soil was too dense to build extravagant buildings, the architects in charge of creating the buildings for the World’s Fair were surprised with all the extra work needed in order for the foundations of the buildings to be sturdy (Larson