Non-Fiction by Les Standiford
“Stories as captivating as any of the novels I have written.
It is just that every word in these narratives is true.” —Les Standiford
It is just that every word in these narratives is true.” —Les Standiford
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Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
See more on the Water to the Angels page.
The story of the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the largest public water project ever created, and the true tale behind the fictional film masterpiece Chinatown, featuring the exploits of one of the most important pioneers of the American West.
“In the preface to his own book ‘Water to the Angels,’ Les Standiford tells readers that ‘the character of William Mulholland and the real-life story that he lived’ have the makings of a novel worthy of Charles Dickens or Gustave Flaubert. His first chapter lives up to that promise. It’s a riveting account of the collapse of the St. Francis dam in 1928, one of the century’s greatest if least known engineering failures....But the true focus of the book is the construction of the aqueduct itself. Though some dismissed it as little more than ‘a ditch in the desert,’ Mr. Standiford makes a convincing argument that it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with other engineering marvels of the same era, such as the Panama Canal.” –Wall Street Journal |
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Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War
(2012) The first book-length treatment of the political and economic crises that prompted a secret society of American citizens into actions that incited the Revolutionary War.
“Much has been written about Adams, Henry, Hancock and other Revolutionary patriots, but these histories tend to gloss the specific events that allowed the colonies to shift from disparate pockets of discontent to a unified force of rebellion against the British… [this is] a rich, exhilarating account of the circumstances behind the forming of the Sons of Liberty and how their actions in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere brought an anti-establishment coalition to the fore of the conflict. All across the colonies, people struggled against financial insolvency, made worse by duties levied by the far-off crown. Without an infrastructure that would enable them to unite against their oppressors, little could be done; it was this vulnerability that Adams and the other Sons sought to correct by installing chapters of their society all across the continent. Standiford makes a point to draw intriguing parallels to the current Occupy movement and other political grass-roots campaigns, arguing that the Sons of Liberty were successful because they garnered support from the general populace and didn't rely exclusively on the political elite. Spurred by well-timed radical (and at times, violent) actions and an increasingly focused and powerful cohort, the Sons of Liberty readied the colonies for what would become an inevitable war for their freedom. Bolstered by ample historical documents—including one especially fascinating exchange between Benjamin Franklin and the House of Commons—the author provides a compelling real-time account of those heady prewar years. A timely, exciting exploration of how the underground agenda of a few radicals paved the road to American democracy.” --Kirkus Reviews |
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Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction that Changed America
(2011) The story of the nearly three-decades-long investigation that led Detective Sergeant Joe Matthews to finally solve the mystery of the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh, son of citizen crime-fighter John Walsh and his wife Reve’.
“The story behind the long and convoluted search for Adam’s killer, which eventually became a cold case, takes many twists and turns. Few held out any hope of ever solving the mystery of who left the severed head of a child in a canal, and why Matthews, once part of the initial team brought in from another jurisdiction, was asked by Adam’s parents to again try to unearth the truth. In December 2008, the case was finally resolved, thanks in large part to the dogged determination of a small team of experts with access to technology not available when the crime happened. The final gut-wrenching, horrific piece of evidence brought a long-awaited closure. VERDICT: An essential read for those interested in forensic science and true crime.” --Library Journal A New York Times Best-Seller and a Wall Street Journal #1 True Crime Best-Seller. |
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The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits
(2008) “Revisits the genesis of the great English writer's most enduring book…[along with] stories about how December 25 became Christmas; how fir trees, greeting cards, turkeys and Santa got involved; and how Christmas transformed from a minor holiday, secondary on the Christian calendar to Easter, into the multimonth mega-holiday/shopping spree it has become….One major narrative thread is Dickens's troubled childhood, which occasioned some of the greatest fiction in the English language. At the time he created A Christmas Carol (1843), however, the author's career was slipping…he was in debt and additionally burdened by supporting his improvident father. He wrote his Christmas fable in six swift weeks, and the first printing of 6,000 copies sold out in days, though the expenses of publication negated much of the author's initial profit. Career revived, Dickens wrote four more Christmas books, all popular and all swiftly summarized here. A Christmas Carol would prove astonishingly durable, transforming into plays, films, cartoons, radio and TV shows, and an irascible Disney drake named McDuck. The author rightly focuses on the secular humanism and benevolence Dickens espoused.” -- Kirkus Reviews
A New York Times “Editors Choice” and a New York Times Best-Seller. |
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Washington Burning: How a Frenchman's Vision for Our Nation's Capital Survived Congress, the Founding Fathers, and the Invading British Army
(2008) The story of how the nation’s capital rose from nothing, championed by an unlikely coalition between the nation’s first president and eccentric French genius Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the man who designed the city precisely as it stands today. The tale reveals the hard fought battle that nearly tore the country decades before the Civil War erupted.
“For the lover of U.S. history or Washingtonian architecture or even basic political intrigue, this marvelous new history is essential.” --Miami Herald |
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Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America
(2005) The story of the most successful, most fractious, most momentous business partnership in American Gilded Age history, with its climax the bloody Homestead steel strike that would change the industrial landscape for ages to come.
“Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.” --USA Today “Standiford tells the story with the skills of a novelist . . . a colloquial style that is mindful of William Manchester’s great The Glory and the Dream.” --Pittsburgh Tribune A New York Times Best-Seller. |
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Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
(2002) The unparalleled story of the building of the 153-mile-long Oversea Railway from Miami to Key West from 1905-1912, a project dubbed “Flagler’s Folly” when it was announced and later termed “The Eighth Wonder of the World” when it was completed.
Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, said “the book captures an era, the Florida landscape, and the very human dream of doing the impossible.” The Chicago Tribune called it “A terrific story…truly irresistible.” A New York Times Best-Seller and the “One Read” choice of more than a dozen public library systems. |
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Coral Gables: The City Beautiful Story
(1998) A lushly illustrated history of one of the most carefully planned and executed communities in the nation, including a biography of the city’s visionary, idiosyncratic founder, George Merrick.
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Miami: City of Dreams
(1997) A wide array of Miami images in coffee-table format by master Florida photographer Alan S. Maltz with accompanying text by Les Standiford.
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