Hoover Dam

An American Adventure

By: Joseph E. Stevens

Narrated by: Kevin Charles Minatrea

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

In the spring of 1931, in a rugged desert canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, an army of workmen began one of the most difficult and daring building projects ever undertaken: the construction of Hoover Dam. Through the worst years of the Great Depression as many as five thousand laborers toiled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to erect the huge structure that would harness the Colorado River and transform the American West.

Construction of the giant dam was a triumph of human ingenuity, yet the full story of this monumental endeavor has never been told. Now, in an engrossing, fast-paced narrative, Joseph E. Stevens recounts the gripping saga of Hoover Dam. Drawing on a wealth of material, including manuscript collections, government documents, contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts, and personal interviews and correspondence with men and women who were involved with the construction, he brings the Hoover Dam adventure to life.

Described here in dramatic detail are the deadly hazards the work crews faced as they hacked and blasted the dam's foundation out of solid rock; the bitter political battles and violent labor unrest that threatened to shut the job down; the deprivation and grinding hardship endured by the workers' families; the dam builders' gambling, drinking, and whoring sprees in nearby Las Vegas; and the stirring triumphs and searing moments of terror as the massive concrete wedge rose inexorably from the canyon floor.

©1998 Joseph E. Stevens (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Joseph Stevens' Hoover Dam is a pure marvel of scholarship and storytelling - history in the grand style... no better tale of the extraordinary effort that got it built has ever been told and none is ever likely to match it." ( Wilderness)

"I thought it was marvelous - absolutely enthralling." (Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.)

Enjoyed this book

I enjoyed this book, and it has led to other books that I want to read now.
I would recommend to any history buff.

Starts strong, but really peters out

I had really high hopes for this. I remember going to the Hoover Dam with my dad as a kid.

It started strong, giving the reasoning behind the decision to create the dam at all, why there, etc. I enjoyed all of that.

But eventually it devolved into just individual stories of people related to the dam. It was as if the technology and effort that went into the dam became the backstory and the main story became people and their problems, politics, and how individuals were screwed up (or not) by the dam. It just got boring. He blew by most of the actual construction, offering very little on it, decisions made, etc. For instance, he barely touched on the electrical aspects of the dam, which would have been really cool.

To the author's credit, he did indicate early on that he was going to focus on people like that, but it really dragged the story down. I wouldn't listen to it a second time, which is kind of my gold standard for how good a book like this is.

Anyway, I was disappointed.

The narrator was OK, but he seemed to mispronounce words occasionally. It wasn't egregious, but it happened on more than one occasion. Other than that, he stayed out of the way of the story and was good.

Captivating and Inspiring

This book details the heart wrenching account of challenges faced and overcome during the construction of the Hoover dam. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone with an interest in history, engineering and, human interest.

This author did his homework!!!

Visuals of the workers jobs, the equipment, to the construction company and the governments role in building the Hoover Dam is not forgotten by Stevens. He wrote details of the dam building and makes the scenes come alive! A fantastic book about the Hoover Dam! This is my fourth book about the Hoover Dam and this by far is the best and the information is correct. You can say: this book was built as solid as the Dam was!