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Leon Czolgosz Essay

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It takes years to build things up, but only seconds to tear it down. At the world’s fair, a place for exhibiting America’s innovation in technology and education, called the Pan American Exposition, in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901 this is exactly what happened. Leon Czolgosz decided to take his hatred for politics and love for anarchy into his own hands and shot President William McKinley two times at close range, killing him a week later. America changed in that very instant; the country went from being optimistic of the new 20th century to reliving the horror and pain of the dreadful 19th all because of one man’s radical actions. Leon Czolgosz was a regular middle class worker, and he, like many others, was angered by the widening …show more content…

He was, unlike many others, also turned away from the anarchist groups though, causing him to have a mental breakdown and feel the intense need to prove himself by any means. Czolgosz was isolated from society and alienated from everyone, even those isolating themselves from society, so in hopes of gaining and friends and bettering life, he decided to kill the president. The president and Czolgosz were both polar opposites, born and raised in different lives with different ideals. McKinley was a good man, husband, and president; his death was a real surprise for everyone and as a result Theodore Roosevelt took over as the president. Roosevelt would never have been president if not by default. He was way too radical of a thinker to have been elected after McKinley, and that would have been the most likely option. The symbolism of the assassination at the fair is powerful; it says that in this brave new world new opportunities would bring danger. For example, the opportunity to meet the leader of America brought the danger of being caught in the chaos of the crowd, and ending America’s isolation and beginning international trade would come with its own set of

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