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Release Date: December 15, 2009

More and more information is pumped into our media-saturated world every day, yet Americans seem to know less and less. In a society where who you are is defined by what you buy, and where we prefer to experience reality by watching it on TV, Eugene Halton argues something has clearly gone wrong.            Luckily Halton, with scalpel-sharp wit in one hand and the balm of wisdom in the other, is here to operate on the declining body politic. His initial diagnosis is bleak: fast food and too much time spent sitting, whether in our cars or on our couches, are ruining our bodies, while our minds are weakened by the proliferation of electronic devices—TVs, computers, cell phones, iPods, video games—and their alienating effects. If we are losing the battle between autonomy and automation, he asks, how can our culture regain self-sufficiency? Halton finds the answer in the inspiring visions—deeply rooted in American culture—of an organic and more spontaneous life at the heart of the work of master craftsman Wharton Esherick, legendary blues singer Muddy Waters, urban critic Lewis Mumford, and artist Maya Lin, among others.            A scathing and original jeremiad against modern materialism, The Great Brain Suck is also a series of epiphanies of a simpler but more profound life.

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author The Sabbath as an American War Day: Three Great Mysteries Solved (1899) by Wesley Philemon Carroll Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Paperback Condition Brand New Details ISBN 1437050395 ISBN-13 9781437050394 Title The Sabbath as an American War Day: Three Great Mysteries Solved (1899) Author Wesley Philemon Carroll Format Paperback Year 2008 Pages 132 Publisher Kessinger Publishing Dimensions 7.5 in. x 0.3 in. x 9.3 in. About Us Grand Eagle

Bad cooking ruins more camping trips—America’s most popular outdoor vacation activity—than anything else except rain. The Great American Camping Cookbook offers the delectable remedy: a camp cook’s guide to the fresh, natural “comfort foods” of the good old days. Whether your camp is a civilized weekend cottage, a rustic hunting or fishing cabin, or a primitive canoeing or backpacking bivouac, this book can help anyone make meals as vibrant as the outdoors itself.Start the day with Wild Rice Pancakes or fresh-baked Cornmeal Blueberry Biscuits. Sit down to a classic shore lunch of Beer-Battered Smallmouth, Campfire Potatoes and Hush Puppies, or simple sorrel-stuffed trout. On rainy days, simmer up a pot of real Corn Chowder or Camp-Style Bean Soup. For memorable main courses, serve up a substantial Modernized Brunswick Stew, Blackened Yellow Perch, or Sautéed Walleye with wild rice and mushrooms. For side dishes, try fresh Camp-Baked Beans, spit-roasted Acorn Squash, or Sand-Baked Potatoes. Then savor a legendary Hot Buttered Rum or Camp Old-Fashioned as a nightcap.In addition to recipes, The Great American Camping Cookbook offers a wealth of easy-to-follow advice on making perfect camp coffee and camp breads, calculating food portions, and composing provisions lists to assure variety and avoid forgotten essentials. The colorful history of American camp food and cooking—from the Jamestown settlement, Lewis and Clark, and Daniel Boone to Ernest Hemingway and John McPhee—adds fascinating lore to this essential guide to eating well in the great outdoors.

Bad cooking ruins more camping trips—America’s most popular outdoor vacation activity—than anything else except rain. The Great American Camping Cookbook offers the delectable remedy: a camp cook’s guide to the fresh, natural “comfort foods” of the good old days. Whether your camp is a civilized weekend cottage, a rustic hunting or fishing cabin, or a primitive canoeing or backpacking bivouac, this book can help anyone make meals as vibrant as the outdoors itself.Start the day with Wild Rice Pancakes or fresh-baked Cornmeal Blueberry Biscuits. Sit down to a classic shore lunch of Beer-Battered Smallmouth, Campfire Potatoes and Hush Puppies, or simple sorrel-stuffed trout. On rainy days, simmer up a pot of real Corn Chowder or Camp-Style Bean Soup. For memorable main courses, serve up a substantial Modernized Brunswick Stew, Blackened Yellow Perch, or Sautéed Walleye with wild rice and mushrooms. For side dishes, try fresh Camp-Baked Beans, spit-roasted Acorn Squash, or Sand-Baked Potatoes. Then savor a legendary Hot Buttered Rum or Camp Old-Fashioned as a nightcap.In addition to recipes, The Great American Camping Cookbook offers a wealth of easy-to-follow advice on making perfect camp coffee and camp breads, calculating food portions, and composing provisions lists to assure variety and avoid forgotten essentials. The colorful history of American camp food and cooking—from the Jamestown settlement, Lewis and Clark, and Daniel Boone to Ernest Hemingway and John McPhee—adds fascinating lore to this essential guide to eating well in the great outdoors.

Release Date: April 29, 2008

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author American's Relations to the Great War by John William Burgess Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Hardcover Condition Brand New Details ISBN 1103116576 ISBN-13 9781103116577 Title American's Relations to the Great War Author John William Burgess Format Hardcover Year 2009 Pages 224 Publisher BiblioLife Dimensions 9.2 in. x 0.6 in. x 6.1 in. About Us Grand Eagle Retail is the ideal place for all your reading and entertainment needs! With fast s

More and more information is pumped into our media-saturated world every day, yet Americans seem to know less and less. In a society where who you are is defined by what you buy, and where we prefer to experience reality by watching it on TV, Eugene Halton argues something has clearly gone wrong.            Luckily Halton, with scalpel-sharp wit in one hand and the balm of wisdom in the other, is here to operate on the declining body politic. His initial diagnosis is bleak: fast food and too much time spent sitting, whether in our cars or on our couches, are ruining our bodies, while our minds are weakened by the proliferation of electronic devices—TVs, computers, cell phones, iPods, video games—and their alienating effects. If we are losing the battle between autonomy and automation, he asks, how can our culture regain self-sufficiency? Halton finds the answer in the inspiring visions—deeply rooted in American culture—of an organic and more spontaneous life at the heart of the work of master craftsman Wharton Esherick, legendary blues singer Muddy Waters, urban critic Lewis Mumford, and artist Maya Lin, among others.            A scathing and original jeremiad against modern materialism, The Great Brain Suck is also a series of epiphanies of a simpler but more profound life.

Five-and-ten stores were immensely popular during the middle fifty years of the twentieth century, selling cheap, dependable goods to people from all walks of life. Now the product of a bygone era, these stores were revolutionary in their time, but few today appreciate how important they were in creating our present-day consumer culture. In this caring but honest look at one of the best-known chains of five-and-tens, Jason Togyer traces the history of the G. C. Murphy Company, headquartered in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Though not the largest chain, nor the first, Murphy's is remembered today as a commercial trailblazer, a corporation run with honesty and integrity, and, at its peak, a retailer whose more than 500 stores managed to outsell those of the giant F. W. Woolworth Company by a factor of three to one. Making extensive use of both the company archives and anecdotes from former employees and customers, McKeesport native Togyer recreates with outstanding detail the world in which the G. C. Murphy Company emerged; its survival and growth during the Great Depression; its response to a strained economy during World War II; its fight against rapidly expanding competitors such as K Mart; its struggle and recovery in the 1970s; and its unsuccessful battle to stave off Wall Street raiders in the 1980s. Though modern-day shoppers may not know the Murphy name, they know the legacy it left behind. From its adventurous selling tactics to its strict code of corporate ethics, the G. C. Murphy Company should be remembered not as a dusty relic, but as a pioneer in the American business world.

The great historians of our day take you on an exhilarating tour through the crucial moments in American history . . ."Easy reading and very informative."– Civil War News"All the interviews are fascinating."– Tampa Tribune-Times"Fascinating . . . Highly recommended."–Library Journal American Heritage Great Minds of HistoryIn a series of interviews that are as valuable as they are engrossing, today’s best and brightest historians weigh in on the crucial moments in American history. Whether it’s the First Continental Congress or the Cold War, American Heritage ® Great Minds of History takes you there, imbuing the past with an immediacy that goes well beyond the scope of formal histories. Conducted by Roger Mudd, the highly respected news commentator and anchor for the History Channel, this collection shares the fascinating insights and rare anecdotes of: Gordon Wood on the Colonial era and the American Revolution; James Mc

Most books about Abraham Lincoln end on April 14, 1865, the day he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre. But that historic event takes place near the beginning of The Last Lincolns, a singular title in the vast output of Lincolnia and one of the most unusual books ever written on the sixteenth president and his family. Going far beyond that fateful day into uncharted territory, it’s a gripping page turner written by a TV producer with proven storytelling skills. This absorbing American tragedy tells the largely unknown story of the acrimony that consumed the Lincolns in the months and years that followed the president’s murder. This was not a family that came together in mourning and mutual sadness; instead, they fell out over the anguished mental condition of the widowed Mary. In 1875, Robert—the handsome but resentful eldest Lincoln child—engineered her arrest and forcible commitment to an insane asylum. In each succeeding generation, the Lincolns’ misfortunes multiplied, as a litany of alcohol abuse, squandered fortunes, burned family papers, and outright dissipation led to the downfall of this once-great family. Charles Lachman traces the story right up to the last generation of Lincoln descendants: great-grandson Bob Lincoln Beckwith, his estranged wife, Annemarie, and her son, Timothy Lincoln Beckwith. Bob, who was according to all medical evidence sterile, believes the son who bears the Lincoln name was the product of an adulterous affair. Annemarie, however, wanted the boy to be a “Lincoln, ” putting the child in line for a vast inheritance. There’s even evidence—uncovered by Lachman for the first time—that a scheme to obtain possession of the Lincoln fortune was orchestrated by Bob Beckwith’s chauffer, who may have been the notorious outlaw and skyjacker, D.B. Cooper. Published in advance of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday in February 2009, The Last Lincolns provides an unforgettable glimpse into the personal legacy left by the man who could unite a nation…but not his own family.   An Unusual Family History Reveals That:-Abraham and Mary Lincoln were very lenient with their younger sons—and  rarely imposed discipline on them.-At age 12, young Tad Lincoln—whose education during the family’s White House years was very lax—could still not read.  -Eldest son Robert Lincoln objected to the intense attention the media paid to the Lincoln family. -After her husband’s assassination, Mary Lincoln pleaded for financial assistance from family friends and people in government.-Mary’s erratic behavior led Robert to swear out a warrant for her arrest and institutionalization.

Release Date: May 03, 2009

A first hand account of the days of the Great Cattle TrailsThe term 'cowboy' has become emblematic of all that is evocative of the 'frontier America' of the nineteenth century. Yet the real cowboys were actually a select group whose unglamorous task it was to move the great herds of cattle from their grazing ranges to the rail-heads and tables of a hungry and ever growing population. They endured rough country, all the weather that nature could hurl at them and the danger of attack by bandits and Indians. This book was written by one of their number and within its pages he has brought to life the days of the Wild West and the great cattle drives. Displaced from their Georgia home after the Civil War the author's family moved to Texas and so began this cowboy's intimate acquaintance with moving beef on the hoof along the long, dangerous and dusty trail to the north. The adventures, sights and experiences of this vanished way of life make essential and vital reading for all those fascinated by the great days of the early frontier. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author History of the Great American Fortunes (Volume One) by Gustavus Myers Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Paperback Condition Brand New Originally published in 1910, a primary source for the business and development of American power in the nineteenth century. As Myers describes in his preface, it was the fashion in the early twentieth century to write of the multi-millionaires in an unfavorable light, as if they were all robber barons and had

The great historians of our day take you on an exhilarating tour through the crucial moments in American history . . ."Easy reading and very informative."- Civil War News"All the interviews are fascinating."- Tampa Tribune-Times"Fascinating . . . Highly recommended."-Library Journal American Heritage Great Minds of HistoryIn a series of interviews that are as valuable as they are engrossing, today's best and brightest historians weigh in on the crucial moments in American history. Whether it's the First Continental Congress or the Cold War, American Heritage Great Minds of History takes you there, imbuing the past with an immediacy that goes well beyond the scope of formal histories. Conducted by Roger Mudd, the highly respected news commentator and anchor for the History Channel, this collection shares the fascinating insights and rare anecdotes of: Gordon Wood on the Colonial era and the American Revolution; James McPherson on the Civil War and Reconstruction; Richard White on westward expansion; David McCullough on the early twentieth century; and Stephen Ambrose on World War II and the postwar era.American Heritage magazine, the country's leading magazine of history, has published dozens of highly acclaimed books, including American Heritage History of the United States, American Heritage New History of the Civil War, American Heritage New History of World War II, American Heritage Dictionary of American Quotations, and American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History.

Release Date: February 02, 2010

Release Date: June 01, 2004

These four landmark novels of nineteenth-century American literature have gained a permanent place in our culture as great classics. They are not only part of our national heritage, but masterpieces of world literature whose deep and lasting influence is felt to this day.The Scarlet Letter vividly records America’s moral and historical roots in Puritan New England and masterfully re-creates a society’s preoccupation with sin, guilt, and pride.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn carries readers along on Huck’s unforgettable journey down the Mississippi in America’s foremost comic epic—the first great novel in a truly American voice.The Red Badge of Courage re-creates the brutal reality of war and its psychological impact on a young Civil War soldier in one of the most moving and widely read American novels.Billy Budd, Sailor, and Other Stories joins the world’s great tragic literature as a doomed seaman becomes the innocent victim of a clash between social authority and individual freedom.

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author History of the Great American Fortunes (Volume Three) by Gustavus Myers Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Paperback Condition Brand New Originally published in 1910, a primary source for the business and development of American power in the nineteenth century. As Myers describes in his preface, it was the fashion in the early twentieth century to write of the multi-millionaires in an unfavorable light, as if they were all robber barons and h

The Great Plains are as rich and integral a part of American literature as they are of the North American landscape. In this volume the stories, poems, and essays that have described, celebrated, and defined the region evoke the world of the American prairie from the first recorded days of Native history to the realities of life on a present-day reservation, from the arrival of European explorers to the experience of early settlers, from the splendor of the vast and rolling grasslands to the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Several essays look to the future and explore changes that would embolden the people of the Plains to continue to call home this place they have learned to value in spite of its persistent challenges. The infinite variety of the Great Plains landscape and its people unfolds in works by writers as diverse as Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe), Diane Glancy (Cherokee), Langston Hughes, Wes Jackson, Garrison Keillor, William Least Heat-Moon, Kathleen Norris, Wright Morris, Francis Parkman, O. E. Rölvaag, Mari Sandoz, William Stafford, Mark Twain, Douglas Unger, James Welch (Blackfeet), and Canadians Sharon Butala and Sinclair Ross. From tribal histories to the impressions of travelers today, from tales of isolation and nature’s furious storms to accounts of efforts to build communities, from flights of fancy to nuanced observations of the ecology of the grasslands, this comprehensive volume provides a history of the intricate relationships of land and people in the Great Plains.

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author Great Short Stories by American Women by Sara Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Paperback Condition Brand New Choice collection of 13 stories includes quot;Life in the Iron Mills quot; by Rebecca Harding Davis, Zora Neale Hurston #039;s quot;Sweat, quot; plus superb fiction by Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, many others. Publisher Description AVAILABLE NOW. Details ISBN 048628776

The great historians of our day take you on an exhilarating tour through the crucial moments in American history . . ."Easy reading and very informative."- Civil War News"All the interviews are fascinating."- Tampa Tribune-Times"Fascinating . . . Highly recommended."-Library Journal American Heritage Great Minds of HistoryIn a series of interviews that are as valuable as they are engrossing, today's best and brightest historians weigh in on the crucial moments in American history. Whether it's the First Continental Congress or the Cold War, American Heritage Great Minds of History takes you there, imbuing the past with an immediacy that goes well beyond the scope of formal histories. Conducted by Roger Mudd, the highly respected news commentator and anchor for the History Channel, this collection shares the fascinating insights and rare anecdotes of: Gordon Wood on the Colonial era and the American Revolution; James McPherson on the Civil War and Reconstruction; Richard White on westward expansion; David McCullough on the early twentieth century; and Stephen Ambrose on World War II and the postwar era.American Heritage magazine, the country's leading magazine of history, has published dozens of highly acclaimed books, including American Heritage History of the United States, American Heritage New History of the Civil War, American Heritage New History of World War II, American Heritage Dictionary of American Quotations, and American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History.

Here is the ultimate American road book, one with a perspective unlike that of any other. In January 1947 Simone de Beauvoir landed at La Guardia airport and began a four-month journey that took her from one coast of the United States to the other, and back again. Embraced by the Condé Nast set in a swirl of cocktail parties in New York, where she was hailed as the "prettiest existentialist" by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, de Beauvoir traveled west by car, train, and Greyhound, immersing herself in the nation's culture, customs, people, and landscape. The detailed diary she kept of her trip became America Day by Day, published in France in 1948 and offered here in a completely new translation. It is one of the most intimate, warm, and compulsively readable texts from the great writer's pen.Fascinating passages are devoted to Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and San Antonio. We see de Beauvoir gambling in a Reno casino, smoking her first marijuana cigarette in the Plaza Hotel, donning raingear to view Niagara Falls, lecturing at Vassar College, and learning firsthand about the Chicago underworld of morphine addicts and petty thieves with her lover Nelson Algren as her guide. This fresh, faithful translation superbly captures the essence of Simone de Beauvoir's distinctive voice. It demonstrates once again why she is one of the most profound, original, and influential writers and thinkers of the twentieth century.On New York:"I walk between the steep cliffs at the bottom of a canyon where no sun penetrates: it's permeated by a salt smell. Human history is not inscribed on these carefully calibrated buildings: They are closer to prehistoric caves than to the houses of Paris or Rome."On Los Angeles:"I watch the Mexican dances and eat chili con carne, which takes the roof off my mouth, I drink the tequila and I'm utterly dazed with pleasure."

In the first of two volumes on the American contribution to the Allied victory at Normandy, John C. McManus examines, with great intensity and thoroughness, the American experience in the weeks leading up to D-Day and on the great day itself. From the build up in England to the night drops of airborne forces behind German lines and the landings on the beaches at dawn, from the famed figures of Eisenhower, Bradley, and Lightin' Joe Collins to the courageous, but little-known privates who fought so bravely, and under terrifying conditions, this is the story of the American experience at D-Day. What were the battles really like for the Americans at Utah and Omaha? What drove them to fight despite all adversity? How and why did they triumph? Thanks to extensive archival research, and the use of hundreds of first hand accounts, McManus answers these questions and many more.Impressively researched, engrossing, lightning quick, and filled with human sorrow and elation, The Americans at D-Day honors those Americans who lost their lives on D-Day, as well as those who were fortunate enough to survive.

"While waves of laughter echoed through the theater, James Ferguson kept his eyes focused on Abraham Lincoln. Although the president joined the crowd with a 'hearty laugh, ' his interest seemingly lay more with someone below. With his right elbow resting on the arm of his chair and his chin lying carelessly on his hand, Lincoln parted one of the flags nearby that he might see better."As the laughter subsided, Harry Hawk stood on the stage alone with his back to the presidential box. Before he could utter another word, a sharp crack sounded. As the noise echoed throughout the otherwise silent theater, many thought that it was part of the play. But just as quickly, most knew it was not." —from Chapter Twelve"Among the hundreds of books published about the assassination of our 16th president, this is an exceptional volume.... [It captures] a you-are-there feeling...." —Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum, and member of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial CommissionIt was one of the most tragic events in American history: The famous president, beloved by many, reviled by some, murdered while viewing a play at Ford's Theater in Washington. The frantic search for the perpetrators. The nation in mourning. The solemn funeral train. The conspirators brought to justice. Coming just days after the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln has become etched in the national consciousness like few other events. The president who had steered the nation through its bloodiest crisis was cut down before the end, just as it appeared that the bloodshed was over. The story has been told many times, but rarely with the immediacy of The Darkest Dawn. Thomas Goodrich brings to his narrative the care of the historian and the flair of the fiction writer. The result is a gripping account, filled with detail and as fresh as today's news.

Store Search search Title, ISBN and Author The Great American Novel: Or, Random Start by Eliot Stafford Estimated delivery 3-12 business days Format Paperback Condition Brand New Dr. Daniel Morrison, recently retired OBGYN, is trying to write a book. That was before the cosmological forces of the universe conspired against him. Dr. Morrison s troubles first begin when he is misidentified as a Freudian psychiatrist by Martha James a millionaire who suffers from high anxiety fueled by a self-diag

In the days before microphones and TV interviews, getting people to listen to you was not an easy task. But James Madison used his quiet eloquence, intelligence and passion for unified colonies to help shape the Constitution, steer America through the turmoil of two wars, and ensure that our government, and nation, remained intact. u?An excellent, fascinating, indispensable resource.? --Kirkus Reviews, pointer review ?The book is rich in the sort of detail that illuminates the man, but is not limited to personal information; a great deal of government history is woven into the biography.? --Horn Book, starred review ?Fritz has given a vivid picture of the man and an equally vivid picture of the problems that faced the leaders of the new nation in the formative years.? --The Bulletin of the Center for Children?s Books, starred review ?Young readers will feel like they know the ?Great Little Madison? very well.? --School Library Journal

The Great Plains are as rich and integral a part of American literature as they are of the North American landscape. In this volume the stories, poems, and essays that have described, celebrated, and defined the region evoke the world of the American prairie from the first recorded days of Native history to the realities of life on a present-day reservation, from the arrival of European explorers to the experience of early settlers, from the splendor of the vast and rolling grasslands to the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Several essays look to the future and explore changes that would embolden the people of the Plains to continue to call home this place they have learned to value in spite of its persistent challenges. The infinite variety of the Great Plains landscape and its people unfolds in works by writers as diverse as Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe), Diane Glancy (Cherokee), Langston Hughes, Wes Jackson, Garrison Keillor, William Least Heat-Moon, Kath

As breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America’s efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam’s striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation’s very culture—the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal’s outstanding—and enduring—symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik’s hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California’s great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam’s renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.

As breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America’s efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam’s striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation’s very culture—the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal’s outstanding—and enduring—symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik’s hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California’s great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam’s renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.