Audiobook9 hours
The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City: Spectacle and Assassination at the 1901 World's Fair
Written by Margaret Creighton
Narrated by Callie Beaulieu
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In 1901, Buffalo, New York, the eighth biggest city in America, wanted to launch the new century with the Pan American Exposition. It would showcase the Western hemisphere and bring millions of people to western New York. With Niagara Falls as a drawing card and with stunning colors and electric lights, promoters believed it would be bigger, better, and?literally?more brilliant than Chicago's White City of 1893. Weaving together narratives of both notorious and forgotten figures, Margaret Creighton unveils the fair's big tragedy and its lesser-known scandals. From a deranged laborer who stalked and shot President William McKinley to a sixty-year-old woman who rode a barrel over Niagara Falls, to two astonishing acts?a little person and an elephant?who turned the tables on their duplicitous manager, Creighton reveals the myriad power struggles that would personify modern America. The Buffalo fair announced the new century, but in ways nobody expected.
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Reviews for The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City
Rating: 4.090909090909091 out of 5 stars
4/5
22 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A wonderfully interesting and well written account of the Pan-American exposition that occurred at the turn of the 19th century in Buffalo New York. Admittedly, as Buffalo is my hometown perhaps I am somewhat biased. In any case, I found this work well researched and simply fascinating. One of the better books I have read in quite a while.Minor complaint, and the reason I did not award this book 5 stars, is that towards the end unfortunately the author digressed a bit with unnecessary social justice issues.Still, I highly recommend the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great work of historical fiction!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For anyone who has an interest in Buffalo's heritage, turn-of-the-century history or the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, this book is treasure trove of fascinating information. Creighton has skillfully crafted a work that weaves in many fascinating themes. The book goes far beyond examining a world's fair. "The Electriyfing Fall" also casts a glaring spotlight on animal abuse, race relations, the psyches of Niagara Falls daredevils and a number of other issues. Of course, it also chronicles the assassination of William McKinley. Western New York readers will like the fact that the author touches on Buffalo's "new beginnings" in the 21st century.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an absolutely fascinating account of the 1901's World's Fair in Buffalo, NY. This is the Fair where Tesla and Edison competed to establish their particular contribution's to electric current; where "civilization" was promoted over the "natural" world; where President McKinley was stalked and assassinated by an anarchist, where 3 women went over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and a variety of other varieties of graft and pageantry were daily happenings. Meticulous research by way of local and national news articles, legal and medical records, scholarly literature, and the memoirs and souvenirs of a teacher who visited the spectacle 33 times. Riveting reading.