Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant, spellbinding work of non-fiction
Review: This is a fabulous story and an absolutely riveting book. And it details events that I must confess I knew absolutely nothing about! Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element if the great dynamic that characterized America's rush towards the 20th century, The architect was Daniel Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works, and the murderer was Henry Holmes, a young doctor who built his own hotel just west if the fairgrounds - a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and a 3000 degree crematorium. I loved the way Larson symbolically weaves these two stories together, and paints an invaluable and detailed picture of life at the end of the 19th century. There are many, many treasures in this book - the accounts of the initial design of the White City, the descriptions of dirt and "stink" of Chicago, and the detailing of the engineering marvels that took place at the time. I thought that the account of the invention and subsequent construction of the world's first Ferris wheel was incredibly interesting. I think that central theme raised in this book is the question of how much is a city prepared to sacrifice and spend in civic pride, and what are the ultimate costs - both monetarily and to people - in achieving this? The strive to build the White City in time for the World's Fair entailed many sacrifices, but it also showed how resilient cities can be, and how the sorts of civic decisions can effect urban living for years to come. I've never been to Chicago, but this book really stirred my interest in visiting this city. This is a fascinating book, and a must read! Michael
Rating: 
Summary: The White City and the Dark Side
Review: This is an easy and enticing read, full of gritty and gossipy details that are presented in a style that keeps the reader interested. I was intrigued by the astounding feat of effort that it took to prepare and present the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 and Larson does a good job of introducing us to the men who made it happen -- all led by the talented and tireless architect Daniel Burnham. The cast of characters with whom Burnham worked reads like a Who's Who of culture and design in the 19th Century.
The reader also comes to learn a good deal about the city of Chicago at that time -- how it so desperately wanted to refine its image from that of a grimy city known primarily as a hog-slaughterer into a cultural oasis and how it self-consciously but determidly sought world-class status, competing with New York and Paris to make the Big Time. The enormous success of the White City was due in large part to that gutsy determination and much hard work. And this book explains that very well. At the same time, it really piqued my interest to the extent that I have done some additional research into this World's Fair. Larson parallels Burnham's story with that of Herman Mudgett, alias Dr. H.H. Holmes, the first notorious serial killer in the United States. Holmes, a charming, fast-talking and handsome con artist, was able to swindle, steal and lie his way into and out of many schemes that a less clever person could have never even imagined, much less succeeded at. He was also a cold-blooded killer who had no qualms about killing women and children as well as men. He ran a hotel and apartments in Chicago during the Fair and attracted tenants and victims there with the Fair's help. Holmes' story is chilling but also fascinating. Again, he is someone I'd like to know more about. Having said all that, I realize that the things I enjoyed about the book were also weaknesses. There is so much going on that I'd have appreciated either more focus on one area or a great deal more focus on the whole picture. The book just left me wanting to know more, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I just wish the paralell stories would have had more of a connection. I wish there had been more illustrations. I wanted more detail about the legacy of the Fair on the City of Chicago. All in all, though, this was a fascinating story and one I could not put down. Be forewarned though, if you enjoy the story, this book will not be enough for you. You'll want to read more. Fortunately, there is an excellent bibliography at the end, as well as extensive notes and a thorough index. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, occasionally gruesome, non-fiction
Review: In the early years of the 1890s thousands of men labored feverishly, under an all-but-impossible deadline, to erect an ephemeral masterpiece, the Chicago World's Fair, which would be open to the public a scant six months, from May to October of 1893. Principal among those at work on the exposition was chief architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, who did a yeoman's job in overseeing the minutiae of the construction. Prominent also was the nitpicking landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, who already had on his resume the design and construction of New York's Central Park. People flocked to Chicago while the Fair was being prepared: able-bodied men who were looking for sure work in a period of economic depression; young women leaving home for the first time to seek employment as secretaries or teachers. Chicago may have been a dangerous place--fires alone took a dozen lives a day in the city--and it was aesthetically unappetizing, "a world of clamor, smoke, and steam, refulgent with the scents of murdered cattle and pigs." But Chicago, particularly during the period of the Fair's construction, offered opportunity. One man, for example, the handsome and blue-eyed and oddly magnetic Mr. H.H. Holmes, discovered that the influx of young naifs to Chicago provided him with a surfeit of prospective "material." That is, with a great number of young women, newly uprooted from their families, renting rooms in the hotel he had constructed near the Fair grounds, it became a simple matter for Holmes to find women he could murder and either cremate in his home-made kiln or flay and have turned into articulated skeletons. Late-19th-century Chicago was indeed a place where dreams could come true. In The Devil in the White City, author Erik Larson weaves together the story of the Fair's construction and an account of Holmes's criminal career. (The man's villainy, though manifest throughout, becomes a visceral thing only near the book's end.) Both halves of the tale are fascinating. In addition to being (pleasantly?) repulsed by the grotesqueries detailed, readers will come away from the book having learned an enormous amount about the Fair and its background. (The mark the Fair left on American society is still in evidence: the Ferris Wheel and Shredded Wheat both had their start at the exposition; readers may not know that we also owe to the Fair that little ditty that's played as background music in movies with Middle Eastern snake-charming-type scenes.) My only criticism is that Larson sometimes provides too much detail. He thrice provides the menus of banquets attended by the principals, for example. Otherwise, a rewarding read.
Rating:
Summary: Of Architects and Serial Killers
Review: The decades between the Civil War and the turn of the century were a critical period in American history, a murky time of reconstruction, corruption, civil unrest, weak presidential leadership, and rampant industrial growth accompanied by social upheaval. Yet it is a time often overlooked in the standard history texts, and certainly not well understood by the average American. In "The Devil in the White City", author Erik Larson masterfully sheds a bright light on this forgotten era, illuminating late 19th-century Chicago as seen through the eyes of an architect and a serial killer, as unlikely a pair as one could imagine. One, Daniel H. Burnham, battles bureaucracy, economic recession, time, and nature in a race against time to build the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Meanwhile, H.H. Holmes, a fiend of unprecedented evil, is committing acts of unthinkable horror only minutes from Burnham's "White City" on south Chicago's shores of Lake Michigan. Larson spins a compelling tale, the rare page-turner that is also history, while causing the reader to ask again and again, "Why have I never heard of this before?" Chapters alternate between the trials Burnham faces in completing a task that must surpass Paris's wildly successful World's Fair, symbolized by Eiffel's famous tower built for that event, and the schemes and deceptions of the chameleon Holmes. Historical figures, notably William "Wild Bill" Cody, Annie Oakley, Susan B. Anthony, and Jane Addams pass through the pages, adding additional depth and occasional humor. In stark contrast, H.H. Holmes is building is own secret "city" - this one of prisons, gas chambers, and crematoriums, leaving behind a path of terror that while far more extensive than that of his contemporary Jack the Ripper, has been strangely forgotten by history. Proving once again that fact is indeed stranger than fiction, Erik Larson's illuminating history of century-old acts both triumphant and sordid is not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than a Ride on the First Ferris Wheel
Review: Dear Mr. Larson: Last week I traveled to Fort Lauderdale to spend several days basking in the sun. Imagine my surprise when two days later I arose from the hotel couch to note that I had just spent a good portion of my South Florida vacation in South Chicago, in the latter part of the 1800's. To say I was immersed in your book is an understatement. I even developed a sudden maddening urge for a stick of Juicy Fruit gum. I must confess that I was disappointed when the book ended, but the ending didn't disappoint at all. I loved the way you described the placement of the simple tombstones and the lavish mausoleums of the now departed characters who made up the plot of the book, as if they continue to interact and annoy each other somewhere in another realm. When I arrived home from my vacation, I immediately looked up the first Chicago World's Fair on the net, and found several wonderful sites with pictured tours. So, in a way, I was able to continue with the journey. Thank you for introducing me to this fascinating time in our history.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to believe it's nonfiction
Review: I have never thought of myself as a fan fo nonfiction books, but this one was amazing. I felt like I was really there; the details were great.
Rating:
Summary: Devil in the White City
Review: The Devil in the White City is one of those stories that is so unbelievable that it has to be true. It takes place in Chicago, in the late 19th Century, at the World's Fair. The primary focus of the book is on two individuals, one an architect responsible for the fair, the other a mass murderer who committed his crimes at the time of the Fair. The author, Erik Larson, has an engaging writing style that makes his books very easy to get caught up in. And, it is an interesting idea to combine the Fair with a killer. The only problem is that the parts about the killer (H.H. Holmes), suspenseful and creepy though they are, are interspersed with the equally well written, but less interesting, parts about the architect's (D.H. Burnham) struggles. So, the reader is tempted to skim the "White City" chapters to get to the "Devil" ones. I realize that that is the reader's prerogative, but the rest of the book has much to offer. This is a great book, but be sure and read the whole thing. It is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Cannot recommend this book enough
Review: The vividness of the descriptions in this book coupled with a shifting historical narrative put it a realm of stranger-than-fiction a la "Professor and the Madman". Erik Larson's attention to the intricate details of late 19th century Chicago and the anticipation of the Colombian Exposition held there is riviting. The grandeur of the "White City by the Sea" contrasted with gritty Gilded Age details of power, wealth, and the wanting of a nation to surpass European ideals in spectacle is thorough and left me wanting more. Reading about the eventual end of the fair left me as saddened as the men and women that saw it burn down after its last day. A truly powerful book and a must-read in our age where the ability to be awed by our fellow human beings through their accomplishments may be a little more hard to come by.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Historical Read
Review: I originally bought this book because I was interested in finding out about Dr. H. H. Holmes. However, the facts and descriptions about the Worlds Fair really held my interest. While I'm not normally a history buff, I found this book extremely interesting. I would definitely recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I really enjoyed this beautifully written book and found it a fascinating tale of an era long ago. The wonder of the fair stands in stark contrast with the evil that lurks in the city of Chicago in 1893. A great story well told! Highly recommended.
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