The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

By: Erik Larson

 

This book covers so many topics and is so entertaining it's hard to know where to start. Centered around Chicago at the end of the nineteenth century, World's Fair of 1893.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, architect, manager, and mastermind of the fair builds the White City, a marvel in itself. Meanwhile Henry H. Holmes is a serial-killer devil, a charismatic young man who calls himself a doctor, but is a con man with blood-curdling obsessions. Holmes builds an apartment building to lure young women into his house of horrors, which stood in the shadows of the greatness of the Fair.

The book covers and includes: Frederick Law Olmstead, George Ferris, Edison, Archduke Ferdinand, Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony and many more. The book shows how the acheivements and the pace of change was at just as break neck of a speed as today. The beauty and the horror created by men, the growing pains of a nation, the personal achievements and conflicts of great men; all wrapped up in a sweeping narrative. As good as any novel, but it's all true!