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

“They were Chicago’s leading architects: They had pioneered the erection of tall structures and designed the first building in the country ever to be called a skyscraper; every year, it seemed, some new building of theirs became the tallest in the world.” 

The skyscrapers that Burnham and Root first constructed in Chicago were, Larson implies, the architectural equivalent of America’s aspiration to reach new heights and possibilities. Building the tallest structures in the world was also an expression of power. Larson’s book is preoccupied with power, tracing the priapic impulse from the skyscraper to the eroticized murders of young women by Holmes. The connection drawn by Larson between these two aspects of American ambition offers an intriguing perspective on the national psyche and history, perhaps accounting for the book’s lengthy reign at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

“America’s pride in its growing power and international stature had fanned patriotism to a new intensity.” 

Larson aligns the vaunting ambition of America at the turn of the century with the prideful conditions of the biblical rebel angels. The powerhouse of the growing American economy is for Larson just as demonic as the serial killer to which his title refers. Larson views this power igniting a newly fiery patriotism. As his depiction of Chicago during the Exposition makes clear, this fire could destroy as well as drive. Burnham is a modern Hephaestus, slaving at the forge of progress, while Holmes constructs his own hell. The parallel suggests that even the drive for economic growth is not without ethical quandaries.