Water to the Angels

<p><strong>In this incredibly timely book Les Standiford chronicles William Mulholland's heroic drive to bring water to Los Angeles and thus to create the city we know today. It's a powerful--and beautifully told--story of hubris ingenuity and ultimately deepest tragedy.--Erik Larson bestselling author of <em>Dead Wake</em> and<em> In the Garden of Beasts</em></strong></p><p>The author of <em>Last Train to Paradise</em> 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 who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.</p><p>In 1907 Irish immigrant William Mulholland conceived and built one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history: the aqueduct that carried water 223 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Los Angeles--allowing this small resource-challenged desert city to grow into a modern global metropolis. Drawing on new research Les Standiford vividly captures the larger-then-life engineer and the breathtaking scope of his six-year $23 million project that would transform a region a state and a nation at the dawn of its greatest century.</p><p>With energy and colorful detail <em>Water to the Angels</em> brings to life the personalities politics and power--including bribery deception force and bicoastal financial warfare--behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before--considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century--<em>Water to the Angels</em> brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era the might of a larger than life individual and the scale of a priceless construction project and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future.</p><br/>