Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
Written by Les Standiford
Narrated by Robert Fass
4/5
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About this audiobook
The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
In 1907, Irish immigrant William Mulholland conceived and built one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history: the aqueduct that carried water 223 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Los Angeles—allowing this small, resource-challenged desert city to grow into a modern global metropolis. Drawing on new research, Les Standiford vividly captures the larger-then-life engineer and the breathtaking scope of his six-year, $23 million project that would transform a region, a state, and a nation at the dawn of its greatest century.
With energy and colorful detail, Water to the Angels brings to life the personalities, politics, and power—including bribery, deception, force, and bicoastal financial warfare—behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before—considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century—Water to the Angels brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the might of a larger than life individual, and the scale of a priceless construction project, and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future.
Water to the Angels includes 8 pages of photographs.
Editor's Note
Incredibly relevant...
This fascinating history of the dramatic genesis of the Los Angeles aqueduct is as engrossing—think real-life “Chinatown”— as it is distressingly germane to California’s current water crisis.
Les Standiford
Les Standiford is the bestselling author of twenty books and novels, including the John Deal mystery series, and the works of narrative history The Man Who Invented Christmas (a New York Times Editors’ Choice) and Last Train to Paradise. He is the director of the creative writing program at Florida International University in Miami, where he lives with his wife, Kimberly, a psychotherapist and artist. Visit his website at www.les-standiford.com.
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Reviews for Water to the Angels
26 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thorough and interesting treatment of a noble and talented man and of his monumental achievement in the early days of 20th century Southern California.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who is a great man? Much of that depends on your perspective. By most standards there is no denying that William Mulholland was a great builder, would appear to have had a higher level of insight than most men in his position and his vision allowed for the creation of modern Los Angeles; he was certainly not the ineffectual person depicted in the movie "Chinatown." The wider question is whether Mulholland's act of creation merited sacrificing the potential of the Owens Valley as an agricultural powerhouse and creating the pretense that Los Angeles was anything other than an oasis in a desert; those questions are still be played out. It might also be noted that you'll learn more about the the All-American blood sport of land speculation then you will about the St. Francis Dam Disaster (sort of my main reason for picking up this book), though the dam failure is also covered.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The biography of the man -- William Mulholland -- who brought water to the Los Angeles basin, setting it on the path to the huge sprawling city we know today. The turn of the century from the 1800s to the 1900s was an era in which any underutilized resource was available for the taking -- all you needed was money and support from the government. Little to no thought was given to the impacts on the environment or rural communities. Mulholland was in the right place at the right time to create the engineering marvel that stole water from the distant Owens Valley and transported it downhill to Los Angeles. Was he an evil man? No, but he had his flaws and blind spots. Was the Owens Valley destroyed? Probably not, as with water it too would have become another sprawling California blight on the land full of cheap houses and strip malls.