Colossus
Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century
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Narrated by:
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Norman Dietz
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By:
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Michael Hiltzik
About this listen
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 was 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 20th-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.
©2010 Michael Hiltzik (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, a staggering 13 million American workers were jobless and many millions more of their family members were equally in need. Desperation ruled the land. In 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created.
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The paths of the great American robber barons were paved with riches, and though ordinary citizens paid for them, they also profited. Les Standiford, author of the John Deal thrillers, tells how the man who turned Florida's swamps into the playgrounds of the rich performed the almost superhuman feat of building a railroad from the mainland to Key West at the turn of the century.
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A Pleasant Surprise
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Nothing Like It in the World
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Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life. The U.S. government pitted two companies - the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads - against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. As its peak the work force approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as 15,000 workers on each line. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, lived off buffalo, deer, and antelope.
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The worst hard-rock mining disaster in American history began a half hour before midnight on June 8, 1917, when fire broke out in the North Butte Mining Company's Granite Mountain shaft. Sparked more than 2,000 feet below ground, the fire spewed flames, smoke, and poisonous gas through a labyrinth of underground tunnels. Within an hour more than 400 men would be locked in a battle to survive. Within three days 164 of them would be dead.
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Fairly Solid Book With Good History
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In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew larger, the streets became increasingly clogged with horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 brought New York City to a halt, a solution had to be found. Two brothers - Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City - pursued the dream of his city being the first American metropolis to have a subway and the great race was on.
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John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition - starving, battered, and nearly naked - they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before.
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Parallels
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How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. Introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
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Outstanding Audio Book!!!
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Over a half century, Malibu went from an untamed ranch in the middle of nowhere to a paradise seeded with movie stars. Behind its transformation is the love story of Frederick and May Rindge. He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she grew up on a hardscrabble Midwestern farm; yet their unlikely bond would shape history.
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Detailed and interesting
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What listeners say about Colossus
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Roy
- 02-20-11
A Political Biography of the Dam
"Colossus" is Michael Hiltzik's contribution to the public works literature including - for example - David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" and "The Path Between the Seas" along with "Golden Gate" by Kevin Star. In this volume Hiltzik details the history of the taming of the Colorado River during the Western Expansion to the building of the Hoover Dam. The political horse trading, engineering, labor problems, and more other surprises than can be listed here are presented. The book offers an amazing window onto the sacrifices made by those who physically built the dam with their sweat, muscle, and sometimes their lives. Desperate men in desperate economic times. This book focuses on the political economic issues to the exclusion of engineering details. So readers expecting another "The Path Between the Seas" might be a little disappointed. This is more a political biography than an engineering biography of the dam. Otherwise, the prose keeps the listener's attention and the reading of Norman Dietz is excellent.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-24-21
A History of Western Water
This book describes the transformation of the Colorado River from agricultural use to the engine of urban greatness. It describes the creation of the Salton Sea, the Imperial Irrigation District and Las Vegas. The role of Teddy, Hoover and FDR are chronicled. Recommended for those who truly wish to understand the West.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Terry
- 05-02-24
details
extremely informative on details also a good narrator. it seems a lot of people suffered during the building of this dam.
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Overall
- James
- 07-12-10
Good, but far from great
Mr. Hiltzik could have used a really aggressive editor on this one. I love a good backstory, but I have a limit when it comes to running down so many rabbit trails. Also, Norman Dietz's narration is--and I hate to be harsh, but this is the truth--somewhat grandfatherly sounding. A subject matter this interesting should have made for a real "page-turner." As it is, I literally have to listen in short bursts to keep from becoming too frustrated.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Fletch
- 08-16-10
Was expecting more.
After visiting the dam last year, I looked forward to learning more. While I did learn more, I didn't really enjoy this book. If you haven't already read it, check out "The Great Bridge" instead.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Trevor
- 10-27-10
Long but excellent
I loved this book. It's a bit long winded with lots of political information on how it came about but a fascinating account of the Hoover Dam. If you've seen the dam in person you owe it to yourself to understand the effort made in making it happen and the building process. A true feat of engineering of the early 20th century.
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- royphotog
- 02-07-13
Detialed but interesting. a good listen.
I had this in my wish list for almost a year before downloading it, I should have done it sooner. This was a detailed account of not only the building of the dam but of the reasons for it. A history of the imperial valley of California starts the book out and then the appropriation of money that took years in Congress. the story also talks about president Hover, who had little to do with the dams creation but whose name was put on it. Stories of how Hover rewrote the way events transpired in his memoirs to make himself look better was a little surprising.
The story of the construction was well don and you could picture the men at work and almost feel the heat. There is even a story of a dog who became the dams mascot that was very touching.
This was a vary detailed book and I think you need a real interest in the subject to enjoy it fully.
It was a good listen, the narration was good and fit the subject. The next time I visit the dam I shall listen to this again.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Renee Sullivan
- 06-18-20
Great book
The politics was a great background of an engineering feat of monumental proportions. To me it was amazing that such an accomplishment could occur during the depths of the depression when Mom was a little girl.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Roy
- 04-22-12
FDR, Hoover and The New Deal ...
Using the story of the Hoover Dam as a back drop this book chronicles the early 20th century and places a number of events leading up to and after construction in perspective.
Hiltzik followed this book with a second volume titled "The New Deal" ... the two books fit together perfectly.
Note: The Owyhee Dam & Reservoir is located west of Boise, Idaho but over the Oregon state-line in Eastern Oregon and not in Idaho. The text mistakenly places this project in Idaho.
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- MG
- 08-22-10
I loved this book
I enjoyed every word of this book. Whether you are interested in the Hoover Dam, dams, engineering, landscapes, archeology, the West, architecture, politics, history, concrete, water rights, art, labor, photography, business, contracting, land management, pioneering, rags to riches stories, etc., there is something in this book for you. The extensive research is tied together into a great story that is riveting throughout. The internet is full of photographs of the Hoover Dam construction to see while you are listening.
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3 people found this helpful