Throughout what I’ve read thus far, I think the turmoil and grief engulfing Chicago and the rest of the United States can be traced back to the declining global economy. Whenever there is economic decrease, crime breaks out as people lose what they once had and can’t afford to feed themselves or their families. The collapse in economy shows movement towards a different way of running things and the World Fair in Chicago is an opportunity to bring revenue to the city and help improve the economy of the city through tourism and attracting thousands of people from around the world as Burnham and Root try to best the prior world’s fair in Paris. As the project begins its construction, problems arise as builders contract out labor jobs to foreigners for cheaper labor which causes riots with union workers along with mysterious disappearances that start popping up as crime levels increase in the city. The final lines of chapter 10 seemed to show how the intertwined stories of both Burnham and Holmes are important because Larson compares Chicago and Holmes by saying that neither wastes anything. This seems to be foreshadowing the next two chapters by expressing Holmes obsession with his soundproof basement and “glass” kiln in which will indefinitely be used to dispose of the bodies of everyone he kills. As crime increases, Chicago and Holmes “waste” many lives during this period.

I think that for the urban areas in the United States during the 1880’s to 1890’s the biggest issue was the growing population. Not because the cities were overpopulated, but because of the issues that the huge populations caused. Larson wrote “So far the year had been a fine one. Chicago’s population had topple one million for the first time, making the city the second most populous in the nation after New York”. Obviously a big problem is the change a large number of people can have on the moral standards of society. It was impossible for the law and technology to catch up to the growth of the city. Another issue that the overpopulation caused was the city lost a sense of culture. It was as if everyone and their cultures just blended into one “Though Chicago was rapidly achieving recognition as an industrial and mercantile dynamo, its leading men felt keenly the slander from New York that their city had few cultural assets”. This quote led to the reasoning behind the city wanting the fair to be built there, on top of the recognition and profit it would bring the city.

I think that Burnham and the others involved in the building of the fair are not far off from that of Holmes. By connecting Holmes and his murders to the fair and Burnham I think Larson is trying to show the likeness between the characteristics of both of the characters, even though there are extreme differences between their actions.