Essay On The Devil In The White City

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is set during the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Illinois, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. The event, which would cover over 600 acres and bring well over twenty seven million people was developed by the architect Daniel Burnham. Burnham and his partner at the time, John Root, set out to put Chicago onto a stage of positive reputation and honor. They must both overcome a series of delays and obstacles, and with the death of his partner, Daniel Burnham is left on his own to set up the World Fair while building delays, strikes orchestrated by Union workers, and a significant decline in the global economy all seem to put the odds out of Burnham's favor. His failure seems all but revenant, especially after the construction of the Eiffel Tower by the architect Gustavo Eiffel is completed in Paris. However, Daniel Burnham is ultimately successful in the completion of the …show more content…
Holmes did indeed exist, and during this time, he did own the castle in Chicago that he used to kill off his victims, with a number ranging from nine to around two hundred persons. Larson, being the author of the Devil in the White City did a fairly decent job of portraying the events of the story as they unfolded in history. The time period is accurate, the people are for the most part accurate. Although surly this is not a history book, someone who picks up this novel can hold onto the belief that it is based on truth. We can use this novel to take a peak into the past and learn about how fun and exciting the world fair is, but also how scary and mysterious of a time the Chicago world fair was due to Holmes malicious actions. This shows the culture of the nation, the actions of people at this time, and that no matter what time of history you choose, no matter what era, their is always someone of something that creeps from the shadows and takes the world by surprise like Holmes