The Devil in the White City -- In the White City Discussion Questions

6. At the end of The Devil in the White City, in Notes and Sources, Larson writes: "The thing that entranced me about Chicago in the Gilded Age was the city's willingness to take on the impossible in the name of civic honor, a concept so removed from the modern psyche that two wise readers of early drafts of this book wondered why Chicago was so avid to win the world's fair in the first place" [p. 393]. What motives, in addition to "civic honor," drove Chicago to build the Fair? In what ways might the desire to "out-Eiffel Eiffel" and to show New York that Chicago was more than a meat-packing backwater be seen as problematic?

I think Chicago also had financial motives to build the fair and pride in their city to show it off as one of the biggest and best in America. "Out Eiffeling Eiffel" was problematic because American's engineers didn't step up to the task of building an engineering marvel rapidly. Showing New York that Chicago wasn't just a backwater city with a lot of growth was problematic because Chicago was just that. Chicago did not seem to be a city of culture and refinement. At least, not as it was portrayed in the book.

7. Larson writes, "The juxtaposition of pride and unfathomed evil struck me as offering powerful insights into the nature of men and their ambitions" [p. 393]. What such insights does the book offer? What more recent stories of pride, ambition, and evil parallel those described in The Devil in the White City?

The pride and evil of Holmes? Or the pride of Burnham (and the leading men of Chicago) and the evil of Holmes? I considered the question to be asking the latter when I read it the first time. If Burnham had had less pride in the fair designed just as he wanted and viewed just as he wanted, the fair might have been more of a success both financial and for its visitors. As for Holmes, I have to wonder how so many people fell for his guises. It's hard to believe he was got away with all that he did and no one noticed at the time.

8. In his speech before his wheel took on its first passengers, George Ferris "happily assured the audience that the man condemned for having 'wheels in his head' had gotten them out of his head and into the heart of the Midway Plaisance" [p. 279]. In what way is the entire Fair an example of the power of human ingenuity, of the ability to realize the dreams of imagination?

Speed and the act of taking the dreams and ideas and actually transforming them into reality. The fair was actualized in a very short time period for the amount of construction, landscaping, and exhibitions put together, especially so considering the time period and the lack on modern technology. The architects, financiers, Olmstead, and Ferris dreamed big, made the plans for those dreams, then made them happen.

9. In describing the collapse of the roof of Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building, Larson writes: "In a great blur of snow and silvery glass the building's roof — that marvel of late nineteenth-century hubris, enclosing the greatest volume of unobstructed space in history — collapsed to the floor below" [p. 196–97]. Was the entire Fair, in its extravagant size and cost, an exhibition of arrogance? Do such creative acts automatically engender a darker, destructive parallel? Can Holmes be seen as the natural darker side of the Fair's glory?

Of course, the fair was an exhibition of arrogance. To New York, to Paris. It takes a certain amount of arrogance in a man to create and build such buildings and a wheel. And in a city, to think that all that was done could be done bigger and better than anywhere else in the space of two years.

I do not think creative acts automatically engender darker, destructive ones. It just seems wrong somehow to think that way, to me. I do think Holmes can be seem as the darker side of the fair's glory. Such men are drawn to places where they (and their actions) can go unnoticed due to the size of the population and visiting crowds, the commotions and events, and the shortage of law enforcement, especially trained ones. But I do not think Homes can be seen as the natural darker side of the fair's glory. To me, to say this would imply that having a great and glorious fair would also have to include having a dark disaster. Yes, it was more likely, given the conditions in Chicago at the time of the fair and the magnitude of the fair, that some dark disaster would occur but one didn't necessarily have to occur just because the fair did.

This section of the book seemed jumpy and patchy to me. It was harder to read in consistent threads. For example, there was a short section on three couples in love and marriage which didn't seem to have anything to do with the narratives being told and the people weren't brought up again (yet). I am guessing the author wanted to include stories of love in the time of the fair, perhaps to balance out Holmes's lack of love in his courtships. But the section seemed out of place and unnecessary to me.

The Camel Bookmobile

Carol Fitzgerald, founder of BookReporter.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com, wrote the following in her introduction for this month's Reading Group Guides' newsletter and I thought I'd share it with ya'll here.

Last week I spent some time at the American Library Association Convention in Anaheim, which was a wonderful celebration of books and reading. Librarians are wildly enthusiastic about books and authors --- and they ask smart questions and provoke thoughtful replies when they are at panels and speeches.

I also got to catch up with Masha Hamilton, whose book The Camel Bookmobile has been enjoyed by many groups. She blogged for us about the real-life inspiration for the novel and how book groups in the U.S. have given people in Kenya the gift of the written word, which you can read here. As many of you know this novel is based on the actual camel bookmobiles --- camels carrying books, which is an image that I love. While we were chatting Masha shared that the book-toting camels cost $350, and readers have purchased camels, some in the name of their loved ones, as a tribute. I love this idea. We just may need a Bookreporter.com or ReadingGroupGuides.com camel! On her blog we have a link so you can get involved.

The first link is to a Book Reporter bio of Masha Hamilton with an interview with her and the second link is to Masha Hamilton's website for The Camel Bookmobile.

JTB-DQ ~ Book III ~ Town Boys and Mountain Boys

8. What role does Abraham play? What lessons does he teach Jim, both in the field and in the alley?

9. What do we know about Whitey Whiteside, "the unexpected guest" (pp. 96-101)?

10. Jim woke up on the first day of school thinking, "The morning smelled like school. The previous morning had smelled only like summer, like dew and grass and crops growing in the fields." What does school smell like to you?

11. When he went to the old school, Jim knew who he could outrun (see p. 76). Things were different at the new school. Do you remember going to a new school? Do you remember who you could outrun?

12. On the "Big Day" there's a Ferris wheel (yes, it's capitalized) at the open house for the new school. Last month we read about the wheel that Mr. Ferris designed for Chicago, so compare it with the one in the town of Aliceville, North Carolina.

13. Zeno told Jim, "Everybody knows you ain't got much of a town if a railroad track runs though it but the train won't stop" (p. 88). Explain how the train figured in the naming of Aliceville. And maybe tell us about the name of your town. Do trains figure into your town's history?

14. I can imagine "the red school on top of the hill" (p. 109). What was your school like?

Jim the Boy

6. Why do you think Uncle Al took Jim on the trip out of town? What do the incident with the horses and his first view of the ocean teach him?
I think Al thought the trip would allow Jim to see more of the world and give him a chance to buy the horses. When they realized that the owner had shot the horses to avoid having to sell them, Jim realized that things do not always turn out the way one planned.

7. The uncles are always teaching Jim things. What teaching moments have you noticed?
When Jim first saw the ocean at Myrtle Beach, Uncle Al told Jim not to ever make fun of the misfortunes of others and gave an interesting analogy about making fun of others: "No good will ever come of it. God will bring you down. If you use his blessings to look down on other people, it's like cussing. I't like taking his name in vain."
The education that Jim received from his uncles was practical and compassionate.

The Devil in the White City -- An Awful Fight Discussion Questions

I'm not enjoying reading the Holmes sections either. I'm just glad they aren't really graphic so far and I hope they don't become so.

3. Did you notice the "water wars"? Because Georgia is currently engaged in what some are calling a "water war" with Tennessee (and because I live in Chattanooga, on the border between the two states), I noticed Burnham's concern about providing clean water to the fair. Georgia's problem is rapid expansion without planning ahead for the water needs of its people; Burnham's problem was sewage threatening Chicago's water supply. Read the section spanning pages 175-176 about the fight to pipe water from Waukesha, Wisconsin, to the fair in Jackson Park. What was the subtle distinction that allowed Burnham to say the water came from Waukesha?

The subtle distinction that allows Burnham to say the water comes from Waukesha is that he piped the water in from a small town on the edge of Waukesha county, not actually the town of Waukesha.

4. A tiny (four sentence) section at the top of page 181 mentions a pledge recited by school children on Dedication Day. I'd never heard that this was how the Pledge of Allegiance began, had you? Who was Francis J. Bellamy, anyway? (You may have to google or go to Wikipedia to learn more about him. In my research, I discovered that I was two years old when the U.S. Congress recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge.)

I did not know that this was the origin of the Pledge of Allegiance. Francis J. Bellamy was an American Baptist minister and Christian Socialist. Bellamy worked for Youth's Companion in the magazine's premium department. The magazine also sold flags to schools to solicit subscriptions. This turned into a movement to put a flag in every school. As the market became saturated and flag sales slowed, the magazine published a flag salute and Bellamy's pledge. My father's family is from Rome, NY where Bellamy is buried.

5. The original Ferris Wheel was bigger than I realized, at "a bit higher than the crown of the ... Statue of Liberty" (p. 185). I'm sure we'll read more about it in later sections of the book, but say something about the size of the thirty-six "cars" on the Ferris Wheel. (Click to enlarge this photo.)

The two parts that astounded me about the Farris Wheel was that the cars could hold 60 people, had refreshment stands, and there were 36 of them and that the spokes inside the wheel were only 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Amazing!

JTB-DQ ~ Book II ~ Jim Leaves Home

6. Why do you think Uncle Al took Jim on the trip out of town? What do the incident with the horses and his first view of the ocean teach him?

7. The uncles are always teaching Jim things. What teaching moments have you noticed?

The Devil in the White City -- Frozen Music Discussion Questions

1. In what ways is this nonfiction book like a novel? Is it more satisfying to read fiction or nonfiction?

I am finding that The Devil in the White City reads mostly like a novel to me, except for some of the factually dense portions and tangents. I usually have a very hard time reading non-fiction books and can only digest them in small parts so they take me a very long time to finish. I'm not having this problem with The Devil in the White City, although it is a little slower going for me than fiction. For me, fiction is definitely a more satisfying read since I don't struggle so with reading it. I do enjoy the learning part of reading non-fictions though and I wish I read more of them. This is one aspect of the online book clubs that I'm enjoying (reading non-fiction with a group on a schedule).

2. What have you found out so far about Chicago, the Fair, and the two men: Burnham and Holmes?

Nearly everything in the book so far is new information to me. I know very little about the city of Chicago and nothing about Chicago of that time period. I know nothing about the Fair or Burnham and Holmes. But I'm enjoying learning about it all!