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The Devil In The White City Analysis Video

Instead, Larson explores many different devils that plague Chicago as a whole.

Larson paints a portrait of a city besieged by economic and labor struggles, the stress of technological development, a flood of immigration, and crime. Chicago, perched at the end of the Gilded Age, is an American city not only trying to establish an identity, but desperately trying to hold itself together against the ever-widening rift between labor and capital.

As presented by Larson, Chicago is a city that exploits this rift, giving rise to a battlefield between the two. Chicago, however, is full of pride following the Analyss Fire of Chicago, in the last nineteenth century, barrels forward in the name of progress and is resolved, almost blindly, to come out from under the shadow of New York City. The Devil in the White City, while it follows architect Burnham and murderous doctor Holmes on their antithetical missions, is much more concerned with the American dream.

That is, the dream that Larson as well as many historians feels America has abandoned.

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During the Gilded Age, Beatty sees an America corrupted from within. The disparity between the rich and the poor has never been greater, he says, with a virtual elimination of the middle class. The dream established by Lincoln during the Civil War is submarined by a partnership between government and business—one that is, at the time, questioned by very few Americans.

It is a city that cannot keep up with itself in many ways. The fair, when completed, would cover over acres of land, complete with new buildings, European Anqlysis, and exhibits from cultures from around the world.

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Chicago, however, was still beset by the problems of all growing big cities. In Blair A. Ruble posits that all three cities, near the turn of the twentieth century, were the fastest-growing, most innovative ones. He argues that each city, such as Chicago, faced insurmountable challenges, such as how to manage the growing disparities between the working class and the cultural elite.

The ways in which the elite handled each problem, Ruble believes, said something about their fate. Chicago was not only flooded with immigrants, but it was markedly overcrowded. It was practically bulging at the seams. Ruble credits Harrison for being a true visionary and keenly aware of the problems his city faced.

Ruble charges Harrison with doing well at managing certain crises, but losing sight of the goal line. He is portrayed not as a failure, but a victim of economic and social circumstances that befall other cities of The Devil In The White City Analysis expansion and developmental growth. Chicago, just like Moscow and Osaka, failed to deliver on its promises and further reflect the American dream. This tension between labor and capital plays see more out in The Devil in the White City in many fascinating ways.

Larson is particularly good in crafting a book that underscores these tensions in both highly dramatic and skillfully subtle ways. Larson portrays both of them as brilliant men in their own regards—geniuses at accounting for every detail, anticipating every contingency, and staying one step ahead. The impossibilities that both men overcome is almost as staggering as the fair itself—a dreamlike world populated with characters as diverse as Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison, and Frank Lloyd Wright. This dreamlike quality, echoed by others in the book, is used by Larson to offset the harsh reality of the world beyond it.

While some could argue that the inclusion of Henry H. Burnham and Holmes should be viewed as symbols, rather than historical figures: the idealist versus the opportunist, the laborer versus the capitalist. He is a man who believes in himself The Devil In The White City Analysis those around him.]