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The Devil In The White City Summary

1105 Words5 Pages

Maggie Hall

Tyler Johnson

World History

November 27, 2017

The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City, written by Erik Larson, published by Crown Publishers in 2003, with 447 pages. This book is a work of non-fiction revolving around the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Illinois. Overall, I'm not going to say it was the best book I have ever read, but it gave me an expression of the past that I never knew about before.

The Devil in the White City is all about the 1893 World Fair. Everything that led up to it, everything that went on during the fair, and the people who people living during that time would never forget. It starts out introducing us to Daniel Burnham and John Root, the city's leading architects. They had built the city's first …show more content…

It is a very well put together and effective book. It gives a lot of information, but runs on about the same topic too long for my interest to stay focused. The author had to do so much research to complete this book, he went in and found out every little detail he could to put into this book. I found this book very interesting, just the thought of killings going on during The World Fair is actually pretty cool to me. Especially with so many people not knowing about it. I did enjoy this book, even if I did lose interest and went on my phone randomly while reading the middle of a paragraph. This book taught me a lot that I didn’t know, like the fire that ruined thousands of buildings in Chicago in 1871. It just generally told me information straight up without wording stuff around it, which is what I like best when reading. I more than likely not recommend this book to one of my friends, just because I could not see them enjoying this book and all the information it gives you. I would however, recommend this book to an older adult, because I feel like they would enjoy and appreciate this book a lot more than any of my friends

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The Artistic, Moral, and Inventive Progress of America A six month long fair with lights and technology that the world had never seen anything like, a charming, blue eyed killer, and the beautiful city of Chicago; all elements that make up the novel, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This book is a retelling of the events that transpired in the city of Chicago before, during, and after the building of the Chicago World’s Fair, also called the World’s Columbian Exposition. For the majority of the book, each chapter switches off between the production of the fair and the life of the killer H.H. Holmes (his real name being Herman Webster Mudgett). Holmes is considered by many to be America’s first serial killer, and his actions are covered

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The Devil in the White City gives a unique glimpse into how there is both bad and good existing in the city. In my opinion the point of the book was to show how both good and bad coexist in one place. Sometimes with the knowledge of the other existing. The book was written by Erik Larson and published by first vintage books. Published almost 14 years ago the book is still relevant today and still has much to teach us.

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The Devil in The White City, by Erik Larson is a curious piece of history work, the book is not historical fiction nor is it a basic book of history. Mister Larson has created a book that is an essential work in understanding America and her people in the early 1890’s and the rise of Chicago as being one of the most important cities in the United States. Before the magic that transformed Chicago into the famous White City, Chicago was known by a different title: The Black City. Chicago in the late 1800’s was not an easy or clean place to live in, as one Chicagoan, Ben Hecht, states “It was pleasant, in a way, to know that outside their windows the devil was still capering in a flare of brimstone.” What change Chicago from staying as the dangerous

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I picked The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson as my one book to read this summer because the serial killer aspect of the novel really appealed to me as compelling and interesting. Larson tells two different stories in the novel that are tied together by happening in the same city of Chicago in the 1890s. It tells of Daniel Burnham and his determination to create something good and H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who practices great evil. This book has a meaningful impact on how I view life as it divulges the difference between good and evil. I have always thought I was a good person or at least I try to be.

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Book Analysis- The Devil in the White City The Chicago World’s Fair continues to be one of America’s defining moments. This is where America proved to the world they had grown up and were able to hold their own. Erik Larson eloquently illustrates the entire fair in little black words on paper. Although he was not alive during this event, Larson is able to reconstruct the story with factual events; he created twists to keep you ensnared into the story.

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“In the first six months of 1892 the city experienced nearly eight hundred violent deaths”(12). Catastrophes happened even before the fair technically started, but the with a huge flow of people to help build the fair came a huge amount of crime. In a short time frame, “[in] August alone the building took three lives. Elsewhere on the grounds four other men died and dozens more suffered all manner of fractures, burns, and lacerations”(178). Many people lost their lives.

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The Devil in the White City Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Chicago World’s Fair, one of America’s most compelling historical events, spurred an era of innovative discoveries and life-changing inventions. The fair brought forward a bright and hopeful future for America; however, there is just as much darkness as there is light and wonder. In the non-fiction novel, The Devil in the White City, architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes are the perfect representation of the light and dark displayed in Chicago. Erik Larson uses positive and negative tone, juxtaposition, and imagery to express that despite the brightness and newfound wonder brought on by the fair, darkness lurks around the city in the form of murder, which at first, went unnoticed.

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The Devil in the White City The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham.

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Erik Larson writes “Beneath the gore and smoke and loom, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging in the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow”(Larson xi). In the book The Devil and the White City, Erik Larson tells a story of 2 very determined men, Daniel Burnham and H. Holmes, using their talents and determination to create good results, but also bad results; one being a very successful and good spirited architect, the other being a witty evil serial killer. It reveals how in every good act or intention, there is some kind of evil, and also the other way around. Erik Larson explores the underlying difference between good and evil, while telling 2 tales of Daniel Burnham, and Henry H. Holmes Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes are alike in many ways, as explored throughout the novel. Both of these men used their determination and skills to accomplish many things, good or bad.

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The authors purpose of writing The Devil in the White City was to show the darkness that lurked around the World’s Columbian Exposition. In the novel H. H. Holmes is a charming, handsome man that uses his charm to murder women. H. H. Holmes used the fair to seduce women and bring them to his World Fair hotel. But, the author is also criticizing how gullible and naive these women were that Holmes was able to seduce and kill. “He sensed vulnerability, sensed it the way another man might capture the trace of a woman’s perfume” (36).

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