Devil in the White City

On Christmas, I finished reading one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time.  I have read plenty of books that I have loved and have pulled me in.  This one was just completely fascinating.  You think you know the history of the US and why some things are the way they are?  This book proved to me that there is so much I do not know about this country and why things might be the way they are.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a book about the World's Fair that took place in Chicago in the late 1800s.  What's the World's Far, you ask?  I didn't really know either and I had never really heard of it prior to reading this book.  The Worlds Fair was a fair, a little nicer than the Iowa State Fair, that took place to commemorate the anniversary of Columbus discovering America. And it turns out, it runs similarly to the state fairs we have today.  There are different buildings with displays and different things for you to look at that are related to the name of the building, or to your state.  There was also a midway with different games, and a Ferris Wheel.

The story revolves around a famous Architect, Daniel Burnham, that was in charge of all the architects building the different buildings that belong at the fair.  This man may not seem famous to you, but as you read this book you learn about a lot of the buildings that he designed.  Such as the triangle building in NYC??  There were buildings similar to our state fair, such as the Agriculture Building, among others.  I wasn't really sure what to expect as I started reading, because no offense, I do not have a big interest in architecture. However, the story dives into the architecture of Chicago and different styles of buildings.  They even talk about how these architects in the late 1800s discovered how to build skyscrapers that could handle the soft earth that is in Chicago.  I never knew you would have had to think about how soft the earth was.

There are so many other things this book makes you think about.  For example, it talks about different songs that were written at this time for the purpose of the fair, though we will sing them today.  You get a brief history of Buffalo Bill and how he was the main show at the Fair for awhile before people started realizing how amazing this World's Fair actually was.  Also, did you know that the Eiffel Tower was built for the Worlds Fair that took place in Paris a few years before?  And at the time, it was the tallest standing structure?  Also, this fair that took place in Chicago needed something to top the Eiffel Tower.  So a man by the name of George Ferris built the very first Ferris Wheel for the Worlds Fair, and today there is a Ferris wheel at every amusement park.  I don't know about you, but I usually do not think about things we use today or types of buildings today and how they might have been brought into the world.  Also, the park the fair took place in, Jackson Park, was a desolate ugly park.  Then the man who designed Central Park in NYC came along and completely changed it.

Those are just a few things that the Worlds Fair brought the us today.  There are so many other aspects to the fair that are so fascinating that you need to read about it.  I could go on and on about the different things I learned from this book, but how boring is that?

Not only do we have the building of the famous Worlds Fair, but we also have a man that goes by the name Herman Mudgett, aka Dr. H. H. Holmes, aka he went by so many names he was a hard man to keep track of.  This man's idol was Jack the Ripper, who at the time was famous in London.  That right there may tell you a lot about this man.  This man does not affect the World's Fair as you would think, there are two stories in one in the book The Devil in the White City.  This man was very crazy and he came to Chicago just so he could build a hotel for guests for the fair.  That is not the crazy part, trust me.  The crazy part is that he would only allow young women to stay at the hotel, yet they would somehow disappear.  Odd...

This really is one of the best books I have read and if you have any interest in history, murder mysteries, or architecture, then this just may be the book for you.