This book is subtitled “Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.” There is plenty of the murder and madness, but the magic is more metaphorical and is mostly found in the dreams of aspirational architects and of Chicagoans looking towards the future. The book covers the frantic design and build of the 1893 World’s Expo in Chicago, driven by the architect Daniel Burnham, and intersperses the story of the serial killer H. H. Holmes and how he took advantage of the anything-goes environment in the city. It’s a weird combination but it works; the architect chapters are jammed full of quotes and detail whereas the murder chapters are obviously more speculative, but Larson’s writing style was so engaging that I couldn’t put down the book at any part. Fascinating reading, with lots of juicy historical tidbits.
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