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Colossus

Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America's greatest achievements. The story of its conception, design, and construction is the story of the United States at a unique moment in history: when facing both a global economic crisis and the implacable elements of nature, we prevailed.


The United States after Hoover Dam was a different country from the one that began to build it, going from the glorification of individual effort to the value of shared enterprise and communal support. The dam became the physical embodiment of this change. A remote regional construction project transformed from a Republican afterthought into a New Deal symbol of national pride.


Hoover Dam went on to shape not only the American West but the American century. Michael Hiltzik populates the epic tale of the dam's construction with larger-than-life characters, such as Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, William Mulholland, and the dam's egomaniacal architect, Frank Crowe. Shedding real light on a one-of-a-kind moment in twentieth-century American history, Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and a gift for unforgettable storytelling in a book that is bound to become a classic in its genre.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik has created what is surely to become the definitive text on the building of Hoover Dam as well as its impact on the nation. Narrator Norman Dietz's straight reading is well paced and expressive, ensuring that the detailed text is digestible to listeners. His delivery of Hiltzik's fascinating anecdotes helps make this authoritative work enjoyable. In particular, Hiltzik's fluid writing reads like a well-written novel, and when coupled with Dietz's inflective performance, the text is most engaging. Listeners looking for a nonfiction title that is accessible and well told should treat themselves to COLOSSUS. J.R.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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