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Rivers in the Desert
- William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
Rivers in the Desert follows the remarkable career of William Mulholland, the visionary who engineered the rise of Los Angeles as the greatest American city west of the Mississippi. He sought to transform the sparse and barren desert into an inhabitable environment by designing the longest aqueduct in the Western Hemisphere, bringing water from the mountains to support a large city.
This "fascinating history" chronicles Mulholland's dramatic ascension to wealth and fame - followed by his tragic downfall after the sudden collapse of the dam he had constructed to safeguard the water supply (Newsweek). The disaster, which killed at least 500 people, caused his repudiation by allies, friends, and a previously adoring community. Epic in scope, Rivers in the Desert chronicles the history of Los Angeles and examines the tragic fate of the man who rescued it.
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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
- By Matthew on 08-18-16
By: Michael Punke
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Conquering Gotham
- The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels
- By: Jill Jonnes
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The demolition of Penn Station in 1963 destroyed not just a soaring neoclassical edifice, but also a building that commemorated one of the last century's great engineering feats: the construction of railroad tunnels into New York City. Now, in this gripping narrative, Jill Jonnes tells this fascinating story - a high-stakes drama that pitted the money and will of the nation's mightiest railroad against the corruption of Tammany Hall, the unruly forces of nature, and the machinations of labor agitators.
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A good tale of the times
- By Edouard on 02-08-08
By: Jill Jonnes
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King and Queen of Malibu
- The True Story of the Battle for Paradise
- By: David K. Randall
- Narrated by: Eric Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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
- By SuperLuckyCat on 08-04-24
By: David K. Randall
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The Race Underground
- Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
- By: Doug Most
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
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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Informative Cobbled Telling of an Important Story
- By Lynn on 05-21-14
By: Doug Most
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Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
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- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
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Performance
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Story
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
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an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
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Chief Engineer
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Overall
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Story
His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but after John Roebling's sudden death, Washington Roebling built what has become one of American's most iconic structures - as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognizable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten - and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, of the frontier, of the greatest crisis in American history, and of the making of the modern world.
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Monumental
- By charles mueller on 07-09-19
By: Erica Wagner
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The Mirage Factory
- Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
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- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California - bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges - seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer; D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist.
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Great start, weak completion
- By steve on 05-11-21
By: Gary Krist
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The White Cascade
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- By: Gary Krist
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In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.
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A detailed, yet very readable account.
- By Rindt on 02-20-18
By: Gary Krist
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New World Coming
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- By: Nathan Miller
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
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The Big Rich
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- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
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Best-selling author Bryan Burrough reveals how four Texas oil tycoons transformed America. Rising from humble beginnings through hard work and shrewd dealings, they shifted the balance of power in American politics. While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.
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Big, Sordid, Fascinating, PoliticallyCorrect
- By Darkcoffee on 11-09-09
By: Bryan Burrough
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What listeners say about Rivers in the Desert
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Overall
- Brian B
- 07-20-22
Water You Thinking?
She likes Mulholland but is fairly balanced. Interesting read and subject, and written such that it is suitable as an Audiobook.
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- Nancy Pf
- 05-19-24
Many inaccuracies-do some independent reseach
This book deals primarily with the difficulties of building the infrastructure of transporting the water from the Owns Valley to LA. It pretty well leaves the impression that the San Francis dam failed because of geological factors. It is my understanding that the primary reason the dam failed was because the dam what is designed by a self taught civil engineer – William Mulholland. Although he had used plans for similar dams previously, he made last minute changes to this dam’s dimensions, and failed to realize that changing one part of the plan necessitates adjustment of other parts of the construction of the dam. There is a lot of information ,from reliable sources on this issue. I would encourage you to do some reading on your own on this interesting topic.
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- Buretto
- 01-22-22
Water torture
Like a dry, but extraordinarily long, book report about a prominent local citizen, or a County Planning Board hearing considering the issue of commercial re-zoning. Pick your poison. There's so much minutiae about Mulholland's family, his daughter's love life, and quirky habits, it's hard to pick out the bits that hold some legitimate interest on the subject at hand. It's been a while since I read Water to the Angels, but it must have been better than this, and a significantly better title as well.
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