|
|
|
|
|
Books : American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century |
List Price: $24.95Amazon.com's Price: $16.47 You Save: $8.48 (34%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523097949409041
EAN: 9780307346940
ISBN: 0307346943
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 16, 2008
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Sales Rank: 5190
Studio: Crown
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.
In American Lightning, acclaimed author Howard Blum masterfully evokes the incredible circumstances that led to the original “crime of the century”—and an aftermath more dramatic than even the crime itself.
With smoke still wafting up from the charred ruins, the city’s mayor reacts with undisguised excitement when he learns of the arrival, only that morning, of America’s greatest detective, William J. Burns, a former Secret Service man who has been likened to Sherlock Holmes. Surely Burns, already world famous for cracking unsolvable crimes and for his elaborate disguises, can run the perpetrators to ground.
Through the work of many months, snowbound stakeouts, and brilliant forensic sleuthing, the great investigator finally identifies the men he believes are responsible for so much destruction. Stunningly, Burns accuses the men—labor activists with an apparent grudge against the Los Angeles Times’s fiercely anti-union owner—of not just one heinous deed but of being part of a terror wave involving hundreds of bombings.
While preparation is laid for America’s highest profile trial ever—and the forces of labor and capital wage hand-to-hand combat in the streets—two other notable figures are swept into the drama: industry-shaping filmmaker D.W. Griffith, who perceives in these events the possibility of great art and who will go on to alchemize his observations into the landmark film The Birth of a Nation; and crusading lawyer Clarence Darrow, committed to lend his eloquence to the defendants, though he will be driven to thoughts of suicide before events have fully played out.
Simultaneously offering the absorbing reading experience of a can’t-put-it-down thriller and the perception-altering resonance of a story whose reverberations continue even today, American Lightning is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
AMERICAN LIGHTNING would be a better book and a better piece of history-writing if Howard Blum had limited himself to giving the reader the portrait of just one American original from the early 20th century instead of three. He should have followed Simon Winchester's example by focusing on the most obscure of the three: William Burns, the greatest detective of his time, founder of a nationwide detective agency that bore his name, and President Harding's choice to head the Bureau of Investigation -- predecessor of the FBI. Instead he tosses in D W Griffith and Clarence Darrow for good measure, following their careers to the single time all three men happened to be in the same room.
Blum would have us believe the three were intertwined in the "crime of the century" the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910. The connections seem pretty thin to this reader. Burns is credited for solving the crime and Darrow was involved in the trial of the men indicted on Burns' evidence. D W Griffith was making movies in Los Angeles at the time and met both men.
Burns, himself, is a fascinating enough character to build a book around. Blum might have left out Griffith entirely and treated Darrow as a supporting character. That would have left him enough space to tell the story of Burns' ulitmate downfall in the Teapot Dome scandal.
Rating: -
Howard Blum's American Ligntning offers scant plot, but big historical anecdotes. Mr. Blum tries to tie together the activities from coast-to-coast of the movie industry, the newspaper industry and a private investigator, but it is just too much of a stretch. Although the book catches you up in the beginning, the bouncing back and forth creates a jumbled affect.
Rating: -
If it weren't for books like American Lightning, I'd probably still be a prisoner of a Pavlovian loathing of history instilled by years of deathly-dull date-memorizing history classes. Fortunately, toward the end of high school, Gore Vidal [...] into his novel, Burr: A Novel. I've been hooked ever since.
American Lightning is not a novel, but narrative non-fiction. In a novel, the author is free to embroider at will, to create fictional characters and story-lines around the truth. In narrative non-fiction, there's far less leeway. There are no fictional characters, but the author can make logical assumptions about conversations and motives. Eric Larson's fabulous The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America is an example of narrative non-fiction that includes much conjecture -- and that's why I say it's fabulous. It's a five-star read.
American Lightning extrapolates far less and jumps around more in an effort to tie its three main characters - detective Billy Burns, filmmaker DW Griffith, and lawyer Clarence Darrow together. I'd might have given it only three stars because it reads more like non-fiction than entertainment, but the relevance of the story makes it something I'm very glad I read, nudging it toward a fifth star.
The book is about domestic terrorism between labor and capitalists and centers on the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building and the search for and trial of the ... Read More
Rating: -
American Lightning must be a really great book. After all, it starts with a horrendous crime, the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building and the filling of 20 of its employees. It has a stellar cast of larger than life historical characters; attorney Clarence Darrow, director D.W. Griffith, journalist Lincoln Steffens and former secret service agent and detective Bill Burns whose real-life exploits served as the model for Wild Wild West's Jim West. It even ties in the birth of the motion picture industry and the Machiavellian scheming and plots involved in the efforts to get water to the rapidly-growing city of Los Angeles.
Even so, I found it somewhat of a letdown. I really enjoyed Burns' description of how he tracked down, hoodwinked, and captured the suspects and how he meticulously went about putting his case together. Unfortunately, once they were behind bars the plot slowed considerably. I was really expecting Clarence Darrow to come in and pull some Perry Mason magic but that is far from what happened. The Clarence Darrow we see in American Lightning is a shambling shadow of the brilliant litigator that history has portrayed him as. D.W. Griffith's role in the story is tenuous at best but he still adds color to the narrative.
All in all it is a pretty good story. If it were fiction I would have expected a different ending from Blum but such is the curse of a historical writer.
Rating:  -
Superlatives are cast with great ease. How many times have sportswriters told us we are watching the game of the season or perhaps the decade? How often are political events described as the most monumental of our generation? How many legal battles have been labeled the "crime of the century?" This is not to be critical of Howard Blum's AMERICAN LIGHTNING but instead to place the engaging historical narrative of the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910 and the ensuing trial of the alleged participants in a more appropriate context.
Los Angeles in 1910 was a far different community than the entertainment center of the world that it is today. Its population of 319,000 placed the city behind Baltimore, Milwaukee and Newark. The movie industry was in its infant stage. California was the hotbed of American socialism, and the union movement was struggling to gain a foothold in California life industry. The battle between union and management would be shattered by an explosion on the morning of October 1st that decimated the Times building and left 20 men dead. Perhaps because the attack was on the newspaper industry, the media treated the event as a crime of enormous magnitude.
AMERICAN LIGHTNING is far more than the story of the bombing and the subsequent trial of brothers J.J. and Jim McNamara. The investigation, arrest and trial of the McNamaras represented another battle in the war being waged in the early 20th century between business ... Read More
Browse for similar items by category:
|
