erik larson books: in the garden of beasts: love, terror, and an american family in hitler’s...

Erik Larson

• Books: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (2011), a portrayal of William Dodd, the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany; Thunderstruck (2006), which weaves the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen with Guglielmo Marconi’s and the invention of radio; Isaac’s Storm (1999), about Isaac Cline during Galveston Hurricane of 1900; Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (1995); and The Naked Consumer: How Other Private Lives Become Public Commodities (1992)

• He studied Russian history at UPenn (1976) graduated from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism (1978)

• first job was with The Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, PA, where he wrote about murder, witches, environmental poisons, and other "equally pleasant" things. He later became a features writer for The Wall Street Journal and TIME. stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s

• has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, Johns Hopkins and Oregon

Devil in the White City

• won a 2004 award for Best Fact Crime• “saturated with historical detail”• “Larson is an historian … with a novelist’s

soul”• “paints a dazzling picture of the Gilded Age

and prefigures the American century to come”

• 1) What was the dinner menu for the eastern and Chicago architects in January 1891?– P. 98

• 2) How many traincars of iris and bulrush did Olmstead bring to Jackson Park?– P. 132

• 3) How much did the axle weigh on the Ferris Wheel? How many pounds of bolts were used?– P. 194, 260

• 4) What types of injuries and ailments did the fair’s hospital treat?– P. 284

• Herman Webster Mudgett • Henry Howard Holmes• Harry Gordon• Clara A. Lovering: Holmes's first wife• Myrta Z. Belknap: Holmes's second wife• Lucy Holmes: Holmes's daughter with Myrta• Georgiana Yoke: Holmes's third wife• Julia Smythe: employee and lover of Holmes; wife of Ned Connor• Emeline Cigrand: employee and lover of Holmes• Ned Connor: employee of Holmes; husband of Julia Smythe• Minnie Williams: fiancee of Holmes• Pat Quinlan: caretaker of the hotel• Benjamin Pitezel: business associate (and murder victim) of Holmes• Carrie Pitezel: wife of Benjamin Pitezel• Howard, Nellie and Alice Pitezel: kidnapped and murdered by Holmes• Frank Geyer: detective in charge of finding Pitezel's children after Holmes was jailed for fraud • Thomas Barlow: assistant district attorney who prosecuted Holmes

The Curse of H.H. Holmes 30 minshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bfKyruioHE

• Daniel Burnham• John Root• Charles Atwood• George Washington Gale Ferris• Frank Millet• Louis Sullivan• Richard Morris Hunt• Frederick Law Olmstead• Sophia Hayden

• The Windy City• Second City • Chi-Town• Chi-City • Chicagoland • City of the Big Shoulders • Hog Butcher for the World • Beirut by the Lake• City by the Lake • City in a Garden• City on the Make • Heart of America• Paris on the Prairie• The Big Onion• The Chi • The Chill or Chi Ill• The City Beautiful• The City of Speed

• The Great State of Chicago• The Jewel of the Midwest• The Third Coast • Chi-beria• Chi-raq • The Gray City• The Black City • “I desire to never see it again. It is inhabited by savages.”

Rudyard Kipling• “A human being with his skin removed.” Max Weber• “Just another poor soul crushed by the din and filth of Chicago.”

description of Prendergast

• The New City (Annenberg’s Biography of America)

– http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog15/transcript/index.html• 25 mins

• A False Utopia, The Chicago World's Fair of 1893

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE7ETCuE5aM• 10 mins

• Antonin Dvorak - New World Symphony– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETNoPqYAIPI

• 42 mins

• Edward MacDowell_Suite No. 2 for orchestra (Indian) Op. 48-part 1– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIUyjlEqsU

• 6 mins

• Edward MacDowell_Suite No. 2 for orchestra (Indian) Op. 48-parts 2 & 3– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdVJwaQMhCU 11 mins

• Edward MacDowell Suite No 2 for orchestra Indian Op 48 parts 4 & 5– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj4yjPSHY4s

• 12 mins

The Reckless Decade:America in the 1890s

• The Lost Frontier• In Morgan We Trust• Blood on the Water• The Matter with Kansas• Cross of Gold, Tongue of Silver

“The Lost Frontier”The Reckless Decade

John Gast American Progress 1872

Frederic Remington

• Sand Creek Massacre• Battle of Little Bighorn• Dawes Act• Sioux, Nez Perce, Apache– Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, Geronimo

• Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee

“In Morgan We Trust”The Reckless Decade

• Vertical integration• Horizontal integration• Interstate Commerce Commision• Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Critics

• Knights of Labor• Samuel Gompers, AFL• Eugene Debs• Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000 to

1887• Henry George, Progress and Poverty• Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives• Jane Addams and Hull House

“Blood on the Water”The Reckless Decade

“The Matter with Kansas”The Reckless Decade

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country

• Oliver Kelly and the Grange– Munn v. Illinois

• Farmers’ Alliance– Mary Lease, Ignatius Donnelly, James Weaver,

Tom Watson

• Populists• William Harvey’s Coin Financial School

“Cross of Gold, Tongue of Silver”The Reckless Decade

"You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

• Political Stalemate• Politics of Dead Center• The Caretakers

Chinese Exclusion

• 1882, 1892, 1902