American Lightning

Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century

By: Howard Blum

Narrated by: John H. Mayer

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.©2008 Howard Blum; (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

Excellent, start to finish!

I found this so interesting, so well-written and such excellent narration! In fact, I only knew bits of what happened but was almost sorry it ended..
Great narration too!

Great book

Narrator was great. I blazed through this book-it was very interesting and historically informative. As an amateur student of history, the most fascinating part was to hear about a few characters I had read about in other situations, such as Clarence Darrow who participated in the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, TN. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in historical nonfiction.

excellent

i loved it so much, I'd like to buy the film rights! the details are immense but expertly woven together.

Terrorism Existed in US Long Before 9/11

This is a story that would have been received differently prior to Sept 11, 2001. In the first half the author presents parallel two stories: DW Griffith, filmaker, and Billy Byrnes, private detective. In the second half, the personal and public battles rage around the allegedly illegal arrests and trials of the perpetrators of the 1910 LA Times bombing. The story drags in some spots but they are few. The reader has a nice voice and reads well.

I found the secret!

I found this book to be quite compelling. The parallel stories of three men: D. W. Griffith, the pioneering American film director. William Burns, the private detective. And attorney Clarence Darrow. Their lives intersect around the bombing of the L.A. Times newspaper in 1910, which was called “the crime of the century” (until of course, the next “crime of the century” came along 22 years later, when Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped).

These three very different men provide us with a personal view of the huge changes taking place in America during this turbulent time. The story kept me interested and fed my curiosity.

I almost gave up on this book, however, because of the narrator’s style. I found that nearly every sentence was read with such drama that I continually wondered if I had missed something. The good news is that I discovered a solution that made the book much more enjoyable. I increased the speed of the narration to 1.25x the original and found it condensed those dramatic pauses to a point where the story worked; at least for me.