Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer-winning LA Times reporter, who’s written a much-acclaimed book about an astonishing construct most of us take for granted. The Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, which provides water and electricity to seven states -- including California, was the brainchild of Teddy Roosevelt. It was begun by Herbert Hoover and dedicated by Franklin Roosevelt, who had opposed its construction but adopted it as a symbol of the New Deal. The book is Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century.
