{"subtitle": "Hoover Dam and the making of the American century", "key": "/works/OL15300102W", "authors": [{"type": {"key": "/type/author_role"}, "author": {"key": "/authors/OL239209A"}}], "title": "Colossus", "subject_places": ["Hoover Dam (Ariz. and Nev.)", "Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)"], "subjects": ["History", "Dams", "Design and construction", "Hoover dam (ariz. and nev.)", "Architecture, united states"], "type": {"key": "/type/work"}, "covers": [9267710], "description": {"type": "/type/text", "value": "The definitive account of the epic construction of the Hoover Dam, one of the the 20th century's most consequential public works.\n\n\"As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America\u2019s most awe-inspiring, if dubious, achievements. This epic story of the dam\u2014from conception to design to construction\u2014by Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist and Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik exposes the tremendous hardships and accomplishments of the men on the ground\u2014and in the air\u2014who built the dam and the demonic drive of Frank Crowe, the boss who pushed them beyond endurance. It is a tale of the tremendous will exerted from start to finish, detailing the canny backroom dealings by Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the herculean engineering challenges Crowe faced, and the terrific union strikes by the men who daily fought to beat back the Colorado River. Colossus tells an important part of the story of America\u2019s struggle to pull itself out of the Great Depression by harnessing the power of its population and its natural resources.\"--Back cover."}, "latest_revision": 3, "revision": 3, "created": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2010-08-10T08:49:28.933349"}, "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2026-06-11T01:22:09.308639"}}