Chicago of the 1890’s
The Windy City, the White City, City by the Lake and even the Heart of America − Chicago has been known under different names underpinning its special role in the history of the United States. At the time, Paul Lindau, an author and publisher, described it as “a gigantic peepshow of utter horror, but extraordinarily to the point.” In what follows I would try to depict what Chicago was like at the end of the nineteenth century, it was a time known as “the gilded age” − an era of stunning changes, technological advances and reconsiderations of moral principles. By way of analyzing Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” and Eric Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”, as well as some other relevant historical sources, I would …show more content…
In the late nineteenth century the population of the city approximately amounted to 1,099,850 people according to the United States Census, thus making it the “second largest” city in the United States (second to New York). It attracted large numbers of immigrants, among which the largest groups were constituted by Irish, German, Dutch, Swiss, Italian, French, French Canadian, Russian and Arabian representatives (according to Samuel Sewell Greeley’s Nationalities Map published by Hull House in 1895). At the time most workers from abroad came from Western Europe and only at the beginning of the twentieth century the number of Eastern-European immigrants (from Poland, Czech Republic etc.) started to prevail. This found its reflection in the press that often printed its messages in languages other than English and in such occurrence as immigrants’ districts later on (because representatives of these minorities used to bunch together or close to the representatives of the same ethnic
The Windy City, the White City, City by the Lake and even the Heart of America − Chicago has been known under different names underpinning its special role in the history of the United States. At the time, Paul Lindau, an author and publisher, described it as “a gigantic peepshow of utter horror, but extraordinarily to the point.” In what follows I would try to depict what Chicago was like at the end of the nineteenth century, it was a time known as “the gilded age” − an era of stunning changes, technological advances and reconsiderations of moral principles. By way of analyzing Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” and Eric Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”, as well as some other relevant historical sources, I would …show more content…
In the late nineteenth century the population of the city approximately amounted to 1,099,850 people according to the United States Census, thus making it the “second largest” city in the United States (second to New York). It attracted large numbers of immigrants, among which the largest groups were constituted by Irish, German, Dutch, Swiss, Italian, French, French Canadian, Russian and Arabian representatives (according to Samuel Sewell Greeley’s Nationalities Map published by Hull House in 1895). At the time most workers from abroad came from Western Europe and only at the beginning of the twentieth century the number of Eastern-European immigrants (from Poland, Czech Republic etc.) started to prevail. This found its reflection in the press that often printed its messages in languages other than English and in such occurrence as immigrants’ districts later on (because representatives of these minorities used to bunch together or close to the representatives of the same ethnic