Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century

Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century. By Michael Hiltzik. (New York: Free Press, 2010. xiv, 496 pp. $30.00, isbn 978-1-4165-3216-3.)

When dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, the 726-foot-high Hoover Dam was known as Boulder Dam. Playing off the long-running battle over the dams name, the Los Angeles Times business writer Michael Hiltzik provides intriguing background on how both Republican and Democrat politicians laid claim to rhe monumental concrete structure erected across the Colorado River near the once-remote settlement of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hiltzik is not the first author to tell the story of Hoover Dam, but he writes well and generally has a good eye for detail. He is skilled at making technical material clear to nonspecialists, and much of Colossus describes the construction...