Monday, June 7, 2010

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

This book juxtaposes the history of the 1893 Columbian Exposition and its architect Daniel Burnham and the author's exposition of a series of crimes committed around the time of the fair by a psychopath who called himself H.H. Holmes. I thought this book worked really well. Larson does a good job with the historical aspects, and makes a convincing case about Holmes's murders as well. I happen to find World's Fairs fascinating, and this book made me really wish I could visit the White City in 1893, see the Midway, and ride on the world's first Ferris wheel. The book also has a lot of footnotes--while it's not the most scholarly book I've ever read, I really appreciated that the author made it possible for readers to trace his work.

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