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    American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
    Unavailable
    American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
    Unavailable
    American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
    Audiobook10 hours

    American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century

    Written by Howard Blum

    Narrated by John H. Mayer

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 16, 2008
    ISBN9780739374566
    Unavailable
    American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
    Author

    Howard Blum

    Howard Blum is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award–winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold of Exodus, Gangland, The Floor of Heaven, In the Enemy's House, and most recently, The Spy Who Knew Too Much. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the father of three children, and lives in Connecticut. 

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    Reviews for American Lightning

    3/5

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    • 2/5
      If history is "the record of encounters between character and circumstance", this book has characters and circumstances galore. Still, this telling of the personalities and events surrounding the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910 is more anecdotal story telling than serious history. Affable and entertaining.
    • 3/5
      A fast moving piece of narrative history that explores "Erik Larson style" the events surrounding the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. Vivid profiles of the major players (detective William Burns, attorney Clarence Darrow) are nicely complimented by a strong supporting cast that includes DW Griffith, Eugene Debs, and a rogues gallery of corrupt politicians, journalists, and political agitators.
    • 5/5
      I love history written as narrative (ala In Cold Blood by Truman Capote) and this book is written exactly that way. The last book I read (The Old Buzzard Had It Coming) was set in rural Oklahoma about 1910. This book is set in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago and all points in between in 1910. But, the contrast couldn't be more stark, American Lightening focuses on the ways that the world is changing - big business is rising to the top in money on the backs of workers, unions are fighting back by striking and then by violence. When the LA Times newspaper building is destroyed and 21 people killed it becomes an all out war. Private Detective William (Billy) Burns (called the American Sherlock Holmes) is hired to find out who destroyed the paper. D.W. Griffith is busy building a career that will launch the movie business in Hollywood and will become *the* early pioneer in films longer than 10 minutes. Clarence Darrow will be called upon to defend the men accused of the bombing. How the lives of these three very powerful men become entwined is a fascinating look at life at the turn of the Century, how it was changing for better and for worse and what the struggles between big business and labor can do to a country. It is a fascinating study of a part of history I knew little about.
    • 2/5
      As others have mentioned, this book is best when following Billy Burns on the trail of the bombers, and Blum does well in portraying Burns as a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Frontier Sheriff. He is also good on the growth of LA, the real estate business, and water rights. Although not as good as James Ellroy of course. However his portrayal of Darrow is shallow, and despite the author's constant attempts to weave Griffiths' films into a commentary on the changes American society were going through, this feels forced and is unsuccessful. Readers who make it to the end of the book will see where the idea for attempting to link these 3 characters comes from - and its a good idea. But ultimately the bombing of the LA TImes building, and the nascent film industry aren't really linked and for me the book was fragmented and lacked cohesion
    • 3/5
      Although I have some narrative quibbles with this book, I did find the subject matter and the reflections of present day issues quite fascinating. AMERICAN LIGHTNING explores the the bombing of the Los Angeles Times Building on October 1, 1910. A crime referred to at the time as "The Crime of the Century." (Little did anyone know the horrors that were still to befall that then-nascent century.) The massive explosion blasted printing machines, men, and building materials. When the dust settled and the hospital triage units were consulted, twenty-one people were dead and dozens more injured. And that was just the beginning. The Los Angeles Times owner was rabidly anti-union and through this crime and the subsequent trial, the labor vs capitalist waged war in the streets -- a wave of terrorist bombing crossed the country.Famous detective Billy J. Burns (a sort of American Sherlock Holmes already world famous for solving unsolvable crimes and for his elaborate disguises) was called in to investigate. He's a charismatic figure, although flawed, and an interesting character to follow. Over months of stakeouts, disguises, infiltration and forensic sleuthing, Burns identified two labor activists he believed were responsible and he accused the men of not just the LA Times bombing, but of being part of the nation-wide terror wave involving hundreds of bombings.Woven through this narrative are two others -- that of famous lawyer Clarence Darrow who ultimately defends the accused, and ground-breaking filmmaker D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation). Alas, Darrow's story is confined more to his romantic problems than his extraordinary legal career. And D.W. Griffith, although a mesmerizing genius (and a bit of a rogue), is not developed, I felt, as much as he might have been. Although, as I said, there are flaws in the book, what kept me interested were the similarities between the present and the past. The talk of terrorist conspiracies, the bombings, the political polemics, the antagonism of unions vs capitalists, the manipulation of the public through the press. . . we never seem to learn from the past, do we? And yet that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying.
    • 3/5
      American Lightning by Howard Blum - a nonfiction account of early 20th century labor relations, LA water troubles, cross-country bombings, and the beginnings of the film industry.Howard Blum' book recreates a number of parts of the early 20th century. He writes very well about early Los Angeles and the conniving that went on to get areas surrounding the city water rights - very China Town. He educates about labor relations - efforts to take away labors power and labors efforts to intimidate those who hurt unions. He seems a little obsessed with D.W. Griffith's love life, especially since he writes quite a bit about it and it never seems to have anything to do with the story. In the end, I was glad I read it. I felt like I learned some things that I found interesting, however, it was a disjointed mess of a book - too many different stories.
    • 3/5
      Margonelli starts her journey at the local gas station, researching and directly observing how U.S. consumers interact with petroleum at the pump. She moves on to tankers that deliver the fuel and the refineries that supply it, then NYMEX, and finally to the sources of our petroleum around the world. Her travels take her from Venezuela to Africa and the Middle East and finally to China. It's a fascinating and troubling journey. If you drive a car, you must read this book.
    • 3/5
      This is non-academic history and so has no footnotes and hassource notes which are almost worthless. But one gets caught up in the account of the bombing on Oct 1, 1910, of the Los Angeles Times building by the McNamara brothers, of the hunt to find them, and of Clarence Darrow's defense of them. Thrown in is an account of D. W. Griffith and his early movie making. The account of Griffith was of limited interest, but the account of Darrow was fascinating. The account of fhe detective work by Willim Burns I thought less well handled. I am glad I finished the book though for a while I would have quit reading if it were not that I nearly always finish what I start.
    • 4/5
      Overall, it's a good book. As others have said, it is better when the story is about the investigation into the bombing at the LA Times. Then it's gripping and a edge-of-your-seat mystery. The DW Griffith/Hollywood sections seem to belong to another book and really seem to be out of place in this story.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed Blum's American Lightning, especially in his portrayal of life in the early 1900s. I felt, like other reviewers, that the first half of the book was stronger than the second half, as the detective closes in and the trial takes place. Blum had to walk the narrow line of providing biographies of three different men and then linking together in their final meeting, and I thought that he accomplished this in a readable fashion. The book was easy and quick to read, and at times I yearned for more detail, for more lingering, and more details in certain sections, especially in the early movie industry of D. 'W. Griffeth. However, the book was an entertaining, engaging read that brought to light many details in early 19th century America.
    • 3/5
      A Whodunit MysteryI picked up "American Lightning" with much anticipation after recently reading Erik Larson's "Devil in the White City." Both are period pieces, narrative history, set in roughly the same time period. On the surface, Howard Blum appears to have a real whodunit mystery thriller about a terrorist bomb in 1910 Los Angeles and the intersection of the three principal characters as a result of that attack.Those three characters include: William J. Burns (aka Billy Burns), an American Sherlock Holmes who is hired to find the culprits; D.W. Griffith, a pioneering filmmaker in early Hollywood; and Clarence Darrow, the bombastic lawyer famous for defending Eugene V. Debs for the Pullman strike and Scopes in the evolution vs. creation trials of the 1920s.The story is about the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, and the resulting manhunt, trial, and movie that followed. The central theme of the period, the progressive era, is the epic struggle between capital and labor. This is where I think Blum's book fundamentally falls short, he fails to really capture the reader with the bitterness of the struggle, on both sides. We never really get the 'on the ground' story, and are instead locked into these three principal characters and their surrogates. Blum never really tells us why this struggle was so hard-fought, why the anarchists so die-hard, why the industrials so ruthless.The best part of the book is definitely the manhunt. Blum takes the reader on a wild journey up and down the west coast, to Chicago, then Indianapolis. It is fast-paced mystery writing at its finest. Blum uses real sources to back up his work, but his lack of extensive notes is also disappointing as it makes it difficult to followup on the details he explores.Overall, the book is a decent read and well-written. However, Blum fails to capture the essence of what he characterizes as "a second civil war... and the inequities of industrial life." Unlike Larson's "Devil in the White City", Blum is unable to situate the reader into the time-period as Larson is able to do. The book is ultimately a mystery novel that is mildly entertaining with little educational value.