Big Dams and Other Dreams: The Six Companies Story - Softcover

Wolf, Donald E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080614162X ISBN 13: 9780806141626

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010

Synopsis

A freewheeling saga about western American industrial might

Who conceived of the Hoover, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams? Who laid the financial foundations for the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay bridges? In Big Dams and Other Dreams, Donald E. Wolf recounts how the interests of the visionary men behind these projects coincided during the early twentieth century, what they accomplished, and what has become of the empires they created.

In twelve colorful, thoroughly researched chapters, Wolf gracefully renders the story of Six Companies, a combine of firms led by industrial giants Henry J. Kaiser, Marriner Eccles, Harry Morrison, Charles Swigert, Philip Hart, Felix Kahn, and Charlie Shea, among others. Together, these executives played a major role in developing the modern American West and in building the structures we associate with it. Then, as World War II threatened, they undertook ever more spectacular projects.

Using a wide range of sources and interviews, Wolf weaves personal, political, and industrial history into a compelling account that will appeal to historians and general readers alike.

About this title

About the Author:

 Donald E. Wolf is former president and CEO of Wolf and Company, a small engineering firm in New York State.

From Booklist:

The building of Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge has already been well chronicled in numerous books and documentaries as spectacular feats of engineering and costly human achievements. Other than Joseph Stevens' notable Hoover Dam: An American Adventure (1988), however, most accounts barely mention the considerable and complicated business transactions, financial deals, and corporate partnerships that were required to complete these and other New Deal public works marvels in the West. Engineer Wolf details the story of the Six Companies partnership that was originally formed to build the Hoover Dam and went on to build the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams, lay the foundations for the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and construct tunnels, pipelines, aqueducts, and military bases throughout the western U.S. Wolf traces the successes that were accomplished by the partners, including the Bechtes, Henry Kaiser, Marriner Eccles (who was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt to chair the Federal Reserve), and Harry Morrison of Morrison Knudsen. David Rouse

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 080614162X
• ISBN 13: 9780806141626
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356