A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist "plunges into the battles and escapades of the entrepreneurs . . . who created the national rail system . . . engrossing" ( The New York Times).In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the transcontinental railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. Once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, America's railways soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by a pageant of speculators, crooks, and vision...

The epic story of how science went “big” and the forgotten genius who started it all—“entertaining, thoroughly researched…partly a biography, partly an account of the influence of Ernest Lawrence’s great idea, partly a short history of nuclear physics and the Bomb” (The Wall Street Journal).Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavor has grown exponentially. The first particle accelerator could be held in its creator’s lap, while its successor grew t...

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 ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER“Superb. Hiltzik makes a compelling case that California is the heartbeat of our nation.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of Silent Spring RevolutionFrom Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Hiltzik, a definitive new history of California—from the Spanish conquistadors to the Gold Rush to the state’s meteoric rise as a tech powerhouse and bulwark of progressivism—and of its indelible...

In this bold reevaluation of a decisive moment in American history, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Michael Hiltzik dispels decades of accumulated myths and misconceptions to capture its origins, its legacy, and its genius.Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal began as a program of short-term emergency relief measures and evolved into a truly transformative concept of the federal government’s role in Americans’ lives. More than an economic recovery plan, it was a reordering ...

“Superb. Hiltzik makes a compelling case that California is the heartbeat of our nation.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of Silent Spring RevolutionFrom Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Hiltzik, a definitive new history of California—from the Spanish conquistadors to the Gold Rush to the state’s meteoric rise as a tech powerhouse and bulwark of progressivism—and of its indelible mark on the United States and the world.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Los Angeles Times contributor, the untold story of how science went big, built the bombs that helped World War II, and became dependent on government and industry and the forgotten genius who started it all, Ernest Lawrence.Since the 1930s, the scale of scientific endeavors has grown exponentially. Machines have become larger, ambitions, bolder. The first particle accelerator cost less than one hundred dollars and could be held ...

In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the Transcontinental Railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. Once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, America’s railways soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by a pageant of speculators, crooks, and visionaries. The vicious competition between empire builders such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, J. P. Morgan, and E. H. Harriman sparked stock market frenzies, panics, and crashes; provoked strikes that upended th...

New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Michael Hiltzik tells the epic story of the New Deal through the outsized personalities of the people who fought for it, opposed it, and benefited from it, rendering vital lessons for our own time.As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the accla...

As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America's greatest achievements. The story of its conception, design, and construction is the story of the United States at a unique moment in history: when facing both a global economic crisis and the implacable elements of nature, we prevailed.The United States after Hoover Dam was a different country from the one that began to build it, going from the glorification of individual effort to the value of shared ...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning behind-the-scenes account of the historic Nixon-Kennedy race: "A fascinating story of a fascinating campaign." — TimeThis is the dramatic and groundbreaking chronicle that captured the epic clash between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, and in the process revolutionized modern political journalism. Granted intimate access to all parties involved, New York Times–bestselling author The...

A vibrant, fast-paced exploration of the pivotal and dynamic 1920s era, focusing on many of the colorful characters of the time and on three presidents: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.The images of the 1920s have been indelibly imprinted on the American imagination: jazz, bootleggers, flappers, talkies, the Model T Ford, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. But it was also the era of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, c...