-
The Mirage Factory
- Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
From best-selling author Gary Krist, the story of the metropolis that never should have been and the visionaries who dreamed it into reality
Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California - bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges - seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries. William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer, designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life here possible. D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture, gave LA its signature industry. And Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist who founded a religion, cemented the city’s identity as a center for spiritual exploration.
All were masters of their craft, but also illusionists, of a kind. The images they conjured up - of a blossoming city in the desert, of a factory of celluloid dreamworks, of a community of seekers finding personal salvation under the California sun - were like mirages liable to evaporate on closer inspection. All three would pay a steep price to realize these dreams, in a crescendo of hubris, scandal, and catastrophic failure of design that threatened to topple each of their personal empires. Yet when the dust settled, the mirage that was LA remained.
Spanning the years from 1900 to 1930, The Mirage Factory is the enthralling tale of an improbable city and the people who willed it into existence by pushing the limits of human engineering and imagination.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
City at the Edge of Forever
- Los Angeles Reimagined
- By: Peter Lunenfeld
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? In City at the Edge of Forever, Peter Lunenfeld constructs an urban portrait, layer by layer, from serendipitous affinities, historical anomalies, and uncanny correspondences.
-
-
Intriguing stories
- By DEANNA M DILLION on 02-27-23
By: Peter Lunenfeld
-
City of Scoundrels
- The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into "the Metropolis of the World". But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s highest ambitions were suddenly under attack by the same unbridled energies that had given birth to them in the first place.
-
-
Great History of a Great City
- By Cookie on 08-30-12
By: Gary Krist
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
Empire of Sin
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans' 30-years war against itself, pitting the city's elite "better half" against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides.
-
-
very interesting
- By Claireoline on 02-20-15
By: Gary Krist
-
The White Cascade
- The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.
-
-
A detailed, yet very readable account.
- By Rindt on 02-20-18
By: Gary Krist
-
The Seeds of Life
- From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come From
- By: Edward Dolnick
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes.Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: Men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from.
-
-
Outrageously entertaining and boldly informative
- By Andrea on 03-06-18
By: Edward Dolnick
-
City at the Edge of Forever
- Los Angeles Reimagined
- By: Peter Lunenfeld
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? In City at the Edge of Forever, Peter Lunenfeld constructs an urban portrait, layer by layer, from serendipitous affinities, historical anomalies, and uncanny correspondences.
-
-
Intriguing stories
- By DEANNA M DILLION on 02-27-23
By: Peter Lunenfeld
-
City of Scoundrels
- The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into "the Metropolis of the World". But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s highest ambitions were suddenly under attack by the same unbridled energies that had given birth to them in the first place.
-
-
Great History of a Great City
- By Cookie on 08-30-12
By: Gary Krist
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
Empire of Sin
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans' 30-years war against itself, pitting the city's elite "better half" against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides.
-
-
very interesting
- By Claireoline on 02-20-15
By: Gary Krist
-
The White Cascade
- The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.
-
-
A detailed, yet very readable account.
- By Rindt on 02-20-18
By: Gary Krist
-
The Seeds of Life
- From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come From
- By: Edward Dolnick
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes.Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: Men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The Seeds of Life is the remarkable and rollicking story of how a series of blundering geniuses and brilliant amateurs struggled for two centuries to discover where, exactly, babies come from.
-
-
Outrageously entertaining and boldly informative
- By Andrea on 03-06-18
By: Edward Dolnick
-
California
- A History
- By: Kevin Starr
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed author, historian, and Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Starr is a professor at the University of Southern California. His extensive knowledge shines through this concise, yet comprehensive, depiction of the most fascinating aspects in California's history. From its colonial beginnings through Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the Golden State has become a uniquely American phenomenon that has enchanted people with the possibility of a better life.
-
-
Interesting read, until it's not
- By MiamiMe on 03-27-18
By: Kevin Starr
-
Oscar Wars
- A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
- By: Michael Schulman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren't always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes.
-
-
Fascinating and FUN
- By Peter Riley on 06-11-23
By: Michael Schulman
-
Calhoun
- American Heretic
- By: Robert Elder
- Narrated by: Rick Perez
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. First elected to Congress in 1810, Calhoun went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a "positive good" and for his famous doctrine of "state interposition", which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union - and arguably set the nation on course for civil war. The strain of radical politics he developed has found expression once again in the tactics and extremism of the modern Far Right.
-
-
Don’t bother if you are looking for history
- By Charles on 06-20-22
By: Robert Elder
-
City of Quartz
- Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- By: Mike Davis
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together". To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it". To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.
-
-
A People’s History of Los Angeles
- By J. Briggs on 08-03-18
By: Mike Davis
-
Ridgeline
- A Novel
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Tatanka Means, Amanda Stribling, Michael Punke
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier - a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming’s Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota.
-
-
Disappointed.
- By Monnie B. on 06-19-21
By: Michael Punke
-
Valdor: Birth of the Imperium
- The Horus Heresy
- By: Chris Wraight
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey, Jonathan Keeble, Katy Maw, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Constantin Valdor. It is a name that brings forth images of heroism, honour and peerless duty. For it is he who commands the will of the Legio Custodes that most esteemed and dedicated cadre of elite warriors. He is the Emperor’s sword, His shield, His banner and he knows no equal. Clad in shining auramite, his fist clenched around the haft of his Guardian Spear, he is the bulwark against all enemies of the throne, within or without. Nearing the end of the wars of Unity, Valdor’s courage and purpose is put to the test as never before.
-
-
Can Chris Wraight please have a team of lore nerds
- By Ethan on 04-03-20
By: Chris Wraight
-
The Hiltons
- The True Story of an American Dynasty
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hiltons is a sweeping saga of the success-and excess-of an iconic American family. Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton's visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism.
-
-
American Dynasty
- By Jenna Frye on 04-11-14
-
L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
-
-
A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
The Days of Elijah
- By: John Noble
- Narrated by: Jarret Lemaster
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a re-imagining of the story of Elijah from the Bible...Elijah is a young prophet studying the Torah, when the soldiers of Queen Jezebel burn his school and massacre his teachers. He escapes, barely, but finds himself on the run and hunted....as Queen Jezebel attempts to stamp out the worship of the Hebrew God in Israel and replace it with the worship of Ba’al. As the queen’s soldiers close in on him, Elijah discovers a little known promise in the Scroll of Deuteronomy and prays for something impossible....
-
-
Great book
- By Robert on 08-10-19
By: John Noble
-
The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
By: Erik Larson
-
The Saints of Swallow Hill
- By: Donna Everhart
- Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the Great Depression, labor camps crop up in remote areas throughout the American South. Destitute workers live under terrible conditions. Trapped in these isolated locations, workers are entirely dependent on the often greedy, abusive camp owners who provide food and housing at grossly inflated prices. But for the most desperate among America's vast unemployed, these camps are often the last and only option.
-
-
great story
- By Chrysta Hiser on 02-27-22
By: Donna Everhart
Critic reviews
“[Krist’s] dramatic portrayals of politics, scandals, sabotage, and bombings make for a rich, rewarding read.... An entertaining, intertwined tale of triumph, hubris, and Manifest Destiny in the city of angels.” (Kirkus)
"[Krist] marshals his considerable storytelling skills to capture Los Angeles at a critical moment...expertly weav[ing] together the stories of Griffith, Mulholland and McPherson.... But above all Krist is a nimble scene-setter, and it's the indelible details he offers that give The Mirage Factory its mesmerizing pull." (The New York Times)
"As a writer, Krist is a dream-weaver...exquisite pacing and seamless shifting between the characters allow their stories to connect.... I've read dozens of histories of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and none are as viscerally compelling or as clear in detailed descriptions of the complicated machinations as Krist's account.... Krist's book is so good that, like the best movies, it ends up inverting the genre." (The Washington Post)
Related to this topic
-
Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
-
-
the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
Without Lying Down
- By: Cari Beauchamp
- Narrated by: Holly Palance
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cari Beauchamp masterfully combines biography with social and cultural history to examine the lives of Frances Marion and her many female colleagues who shaped filmmaking from the early teens through the 1940s. Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost three decades, wrote almost 200 produced films and remains the only woman to win two Academy Awards for original screenwriting (The Big House and The Champ).
-
-
A Must Read
- By Robert Wallace on 03-19-19
By: Cari Beauchamp
-
Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
-
-
Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
The Big Rich
- The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Bryan Burrough reveals how four Texas oil tycoons transformed America. Rising from humble beginnings through hard work and shrewd dealings, they shifted the balance of power in American politics. While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.
-
-
Big, Sordid, Fascinating, PoliticallyCorrect
- By Darkcoffee on 11-09-09
By: Bryan Burrough
-
New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
-
-
My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
-
Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
-
-
the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
Without Lying Down
- By: Cari Beauchamp
- Narrated by: Holly Palance
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cari Beauchamp masterfully combines biography with social and cultural history to examine the lives of Frances Marion and her many female colleagues who shaped filmmaking from the early teens through the 1940s. Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost three decades, wrote almost 200 produced films and remains the only woman to win two Academy Awards for original screenwriting (The Big House and The Champ).
-
-
A Must Read
- By Robert Wallace on 03-19-19
By: Cari Beauchamp
-
Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
-
-
Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
The Big Rich
- The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Bryan Burrough reveals how four Texas oil tycoons transformed America. Rising from humble beginnings through hard work and shrewd dealings, they shifted the balance of power in American politics. While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.
-
-
Big, Sordid, Fascinating, PoliticallyCorrect
- By Darkcoffee on 11-09-09
By: Bryan Burrough
-
New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
-
-
My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
-
The Speed of Sound
- Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926 - 1930
- By: Scott Eyman
- Narrated by: Adams Morgan
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.
-
-
Better than nothing!
- By Colin Barton on 08-31-11
By: Scott Eyman
-
One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
-
-
Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
-
Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood
- Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire
- By: Kathleen Sharp
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever wonder why so many B actors wind up as A-grade politicians? Or how the casting couch worked? Acclaimed author Kathleen Sharp traces the influence of show business through the lives of its first power couple. Edie and Lew Wasserman built the world’s largest talent agency, MCA, created the multibillion-dollar Universal Studios, and helped shape Washington, DC.
-
-
Best Book I Have Heard In A Long Time!!!
- By James M. Patton on 09-25-16
By: Kathleen Sharp
-
The Curse of Beauty
- The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America's First Supermodel
- By: James Bone
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. Her name is Audrey Munson.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Аmazon Customer on 04-06-17
By: James Bone
-
American-Made
- The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
- By: Nick Taylor
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, a staggering 13 million American workers were jobless and many millions more of their family members were equally in need. Desperation ruled the land. In 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created.
-
-
The true spirit of America.
- By Helen on 07-01-08
By: Nick Taylor
-
Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
-
-
Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
-
Three Years in Wonderland
- The Disney Brothers, C. V. Wood, and the Making of the Great American Theme Park
- By: Todd James Pierce
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While the success of Disneyland is largely credited to Walt and Roy Disney, there was a third, mostly forgotten dynamo instrumental to the development of the park: fast-talking Texan C. V. Wood. Three Years in Wonderland presents the never-before-told, full story of "the happiest place on earth".
-
-
A really great and interesting story.
- By Mike on 02-20-20
-
Red Carpet
- Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy
- By: Erich Schwartzel
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in a strange and unexpected arena: the movies. The film industry, Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explains, is the latest battleground in the tense and complex rivalry between these two world powers. In recent decades, as China has grown into a giant of the international economy, it has become a crucial source of revenue for the American film industry.
-
-
Why modern cinema is a comic experience.
- By Pasternak on 03-11-22
By: Erich Schwartzel
-
American Rebel
- The Life of Clint Eastwood
- By: Marc Eliot
- Narrated by: Marc Eliot
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author Marc Eliot comes the definitive biography of one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful actors, producers, and directors in the history of American motion pictures. Marc Eliot examines the ever-exciting, often tumultuous arc of Eastwood's life and career, from his days as a disaffected college dropout, to his rise to fame as the archetypal loner, to his acceptance into the pantheon of the Academy as a multiple Oscar Award winner.
-
-
I learned the hard way.
- By Ty Pritchard on 07-23-10
By: Marc Eliot
-
American Lightning
- Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
- By: Howard Blum
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
very interesting popular history
- By D. Littman on 11-28-08
By: Howard Blum
-
The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
-
-
No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
-
Steve McQueen
- A Biography
- By: Marc Eliot
- Narrated by: Marc Eliot
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and '70s with now-classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullit, Steve McQueen is renowned as one of the most exciting actors ever to come out of Hollywood. Now, in Steve McQueen: A Biography, best-selling author Marc Eliot gives unique insight into McQueen's life, from his films to his three marriages, many affairs, and struggles with addictions.
-
-
Snooze
- By Cill on 10-27-11
By: Marc Eliot
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
City of Quartz
- Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- By: Mike Davis
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together". To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it". To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.
-
-
A People’s History of Los Angeles
- By J. Briggs on 08-03-18
By: Mike Davis
-
Inventing Paradise
- The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles
- By: Paul Haddad
- Narrated by: Paul Haddad
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.
-
-
Citations
- By Michael's on 09-03-24
By: Paul Haddad
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
Rivers in the Desert
- William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles
- By: Margaret Leslie Davis
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rivers in the Desert follows the remarkable career of William Mulholland, the visionary who engineered the rise of Los Angeles as the greatest American city west of the Mississippi. He sought to transform the sparse and barren desert into an inhabitable environment by designing the longest aqueduct in the Western Hemisphere, bringing water from the mountains to support a large city. This "fascinating history" chronicles Mulholland's dramatic ascension to wealth and fame - followed by his tragic downfall after the sudden collapse of the dam he had constructed.
-
-
Many inaccuracies-do some independent reseach
- By Nancy Pf on 05-19-24
-
L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
-
-
A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
-
The Dreamt Land
- Chasing Water and Dust Across California
- By: Mark Arax
- Narrated by: Mark Arax
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion.
-
-
Damn Near Perfect!
- By Charlie Morton on 12-08-19
By: Mark Arax
-
City of Quartz
- Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- By: Mike Davis
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together". To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it". To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.
-
-
A People’s History of Los Angeles
- By J. Briggs on 08-03-18
By: Mike Davis
-
Inventing Paradise
- The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles
- By: Paul Haddad
- Narrated by: Paul Haddad
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.
-
-
Citations
- By Michael's on 09-03-24
By: Paul Haddad
-
Water to the Angels
- William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
-
-
Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
-
Rivers in the Desert
- William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles
- By: Margaret Leslie Davis
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rivers in the Desert follows the remarkable career of William Mulholland, the visionary who engineered the rise of Los Angeles as the greatest American city west of the Mississippi. He sought to transform the sparse and barren desert into an inhabitable environment by designing the longest aqueduct in the Western Hemisphere, bringing water from the mountains to support a large city. This "fascinating history" chronicles Mulholland's dramatic ascension to wealth and fame - followed by his tragic downfall after the sudden collapse of the dam he had constructed.
-
-
Many inaccuracies-do some independent reseach
- By Nancy Pf on 05-19-24
-
L.A. Noir
- The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City
- By: John Buntin
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.
-
-
A good (but a little corny) history of LA
- By Jimmy on 10-23-12
By: John Buntin
-
The Dreamt Land
- Chasing Water and Dust Across California
- By: Mark Arax
- Narrated by: Mark Arax
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion.
-
-
Damn Near Perfect!
- By Charlie Morton on 12-08-19
By: Mark Arax
-
Freewaytopia
- How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles
- By: Paul Haddad, Patt Morrison - foreword
- Narrated by: Paul Haddad
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social, economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of freeways whose very form—futuristic, majestic, and progressive—perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels.
-
-
A fun and thought-provoking history!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-01-23
By: Paul Haddad, and others
-
Empire of Sin
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans' 30-years war against itself, pitting the city's elite "better half" against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides.
-
-
very interesting
- By Claireoline on 02-20-15
By: Gary Krist
-
The White Cascade
- The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.
-
-
A detailed, yet very readable account.
- By Rindt on 02-20-18
By: Gary Krist
-
The Castle on Sunset
- Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont
- By: Shawn Levy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since 1929, Hollywood’s brightest stars have flocked to the Chateau Marmont as if it were a second home. An apartment building-turned-hotel, the Chateau has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: where director Nicholas Ray slept with his 16-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose; and Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months. Much of what has happened inside the Chateau’s walls has eluded the public eye - until now.
-
-
Was enjoying it until...
- By leigh on 04-22-20
By: Shawn Levy
-
Floodpath
- The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
- By: Jon Wilkman
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind LA noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.
-
-
Incredible story
- By C. Jackson on 04-07-21
By: Jon Wilkman
-
Dear Los Angeles
- The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018
- By: David Kipen - editor
- Narrated by: Tom Picasso, Jeanine Bartel, Richard Poe, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The City of Angels has played a distinct role in the hearts, minds, and imaginations of millions of people, who see it as the ultimate symbol of the American Dream. David Kipen, a cultural historian and avid scholar of Los Angeles, has scoured libraries, archives, and private estates to assemble a kaleidoscopic view of a truly unique city. From the Spanish missionary expeditions in the early 1500s to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the strange new world of social media, this collection is a slice of life in L.A. through the years.
-
City of Scoundrels
- The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into "the Metropolis of the World". But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s highest ambitions were suddenly under attack by the same unbridled energies that had given birth to them in the first place.
-
-
Great History of a Great City
- By Cookie on 08-30-12
By: Gary Krist
-
Everything Now
- Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles
- By: Rosecrans Baldwin
- Narrated by: Rosecrans Baldwin
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America's western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny - this is the city-state of Los Angeles.
-
-
Has some interesting things to say but but also a lot of pointless rambling
- By Anthony Chirco on 02-12-23
-
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
- The American West and Its Disappearing Water
- By: Marc Reisner
- Narrated by: Joe Spieler, Kate Udall
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants to transform the West.
-
-
Too much mouth noise in narration
- By AES on 07-23-19
By: Marc Reisner
-
Set the Night on Fire
- L.A. in the Sixties
- By: Mike Davis, Jon Wiener
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Los Angeles in the '60s was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power - where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture.
-
-
An amazingly comprehensive story of a critical decade.
- By Manifesta on 11-29-20
By: Mike Davis, and others
-
City of Nets
- A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's
- By: Otto Friedrich, Glen David Gold - foreword
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 25 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1939, 50 million Americans went to the movies every week, Louis B. Mayer was the highest-paid man in the country, and Hollywood produced 530 feature films a year. One decade and five thousand movies later, the studios were faltering....
-
-
Disjointed and flawed
- By A. N. Onymous on 01-18-22
By: Otto Friedrich, and others
-
West of the West
- Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State
- By: Mark Arax
- Narrated by: Mark Arax
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, "When I am in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West", and in this book, Mark Arax spends four years travelling up and down the Golden State to explore its singular place in the world. This is California beyond the clichés. This is California as only a native son, deep in the dust, could draw it.
By: Mark Arax
What listeners say about The Mirage Factory
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rosemary V. DArcy
- 05-30-23
Fascinating!
An amazing intertwining of the several makor enterprises that created Los Angeles and the people who made it happen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-18-18
Very interesting and enjoyable!
I learned a lot from this book that I didn’t know and the narration and writing made for a very enjoyable day listening to this book straight thru which is something I rarely do. If your a fan of history then I think you would enjoy this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Debra Carlton
- 02-20-22
Amazing history of LA
Loved this book. If you know little of LA history, and even if you don't care of how it came to be, this book is an amazing account of a city that only came about because of the focus of brilliant - yet flawed - people. I couldn't put it down.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Victor
- 10-04-22
Transplanted to LA
As an immigrant to Los Angeles 50 years ago, I was knowledgeable enough about the three stars of this extravaganza but very ignorant of the specifics of the County, City, suburbs and history of the people & places & how they got to be what they have become in 2022. The fact that the DWP is still corrupt, that enough water for a growing community is an ever present problem & that pervasive racism still abounds is amazing. “Hollywood” now is more a concept than a specific place is also apparent.
I loved the story; the presentation is exquisite & the future is still cloudy. It is well written if a little bit jumpy from place to place & time period to time period.
I highly recommend this tome to everyone interested in this magnificent country of ours & specifically LALA LAND.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Smithies
- 07-22-20
Excellently done
Great content and a narrator that kept it interesting and flowing. Early L. A. info
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 06-07-18
A great story
The flow of this comprehensive story is masterful. 4 beginnings wrapped into three intertwining stories. The beginning of water in LA, the beginning of Hollywood as a movie capital, the beginning of the four square church and the beginning of LA the vast metropolis. Rob Shapiro is a magnificent narrator and Krist does a great job of melding the stories into a cohesive narrative. As a native Angelino I found this book to be a fascinating look into the evolution of the city I love.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan C Gallo
- 02-10-22
AMAZING BOOK
Somehow, this author wrote the most amazing history book that delves into the history of film, natural resources and religion of Los Angeles. I particularly loved how much he wrote about Aimee Semple McPherson - the evangelical Pentecostal minister who probably has more influence on southern California’s conservative religious population than you realize. The film stuff was so interesting and the water battles play out like a movie. I loved it all.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- OSHCats
- 08-15-19
A great story about history
This book was pieced together so well it flowed from one topic to another. The research done to write this book was staggering. I really like the fact the story was told only on documented facts, no added impressions or guesses.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Desert Crossing
- 08-22-18
Wonderful, embodies the material
This is my first of Krist - and I have to say it is incredibly well researched and executed. I do sense a tinge if self indulgent nostalgia - but as someone not originally from LA I can say that it is still quite enjoyable.
The narration is ON POINT. I cannot stress this enough - as this is an audiobook - the narration is flawless and a joy to listen to, especially for the material.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-14-18
Incredible
Superbly written and narrated. You will love it. Hands down, favorite book of the year.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!