American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century

Wow, what a chore just to finish this book! The author has taken what could have been a moderately interesting 200-page book and stretched it to nearly twice that length. His book revolves around three famous individuals of the early 20th century, but the facts mostly center on only one of these three, and the author drags the other two back onto center stage for irrelevant detail far too often.

Not only that, he repeatedly commits a cardinal sin for anyone creative: "Show, don't tell." This author tells, tells, tells, and then tells what he's showing.

In need of some very, very serious editing.

In 1910 there were a series of explosions across the country. Some believed the bombings were the work of anarchists while others thought they were more likely caused by workers in the fight between the working class and capitalists. The bombings were destructive but bloodless until October 1, 1910 when 21 employees of the Los Angeles Times were killed when an explosion ripped through their building. But was it the work of angry workers or company owners hoping to blame the unions? Enter Billy Burns, the greatest private detective of his day.

Butns was hired by the city to find the culprits and he took his role very seriously. His company followed every lead and eventually located the people who set the bomb and the people who hired them. But the story is much more than just Billy Burns solving the bombing. The unions wanted the best man possible to defend the accused union leaders so they hire Clarence Darrow. Darrow still had years ahead of him to defend Scopes for teaching evolution and Leopold and Loeb for being cold blooded killers. But this case almost broke him.

And finally we meet D.W. Griffith, the famous director who's involvement in this case is very peripheral but who represents what Los Angeles is becoming. The end result is a fast moving and interesting look at a little known terrorist period in out history. Blum writes like a newspaperman (which he is) and not a novelist (which he isn't). The book is a quick read that bounces between the three main characters and tries to tie them together with varying success.

The end result is not a failure but it isn't a great success. There are many parts of the story (the many bombings by the labor movement, for example) that could have used more in-depth treatment. But it isn't a bad book and I think you will find it worth the time. The 300 pages read quickly and Blum wrap up things well enough at the end to leave you feeling that you got the meat of the story.

Howard Blum, Pulitzer Prize finalist, has crafted the story of an act of terrorism perpetrated on American soil (by Americans) some 90 years before 9/11. The LA Times building was exploded by a bomb set by union supporters in October 1910 (the Times was an anti-unionist paper). People died and the building was destroyed, but the paper kept right on rolling and in fact was published the very next day. The publisher, Harrrison Grey Otis, who knew he might be a target, had planned for such an event and had a separate printing setup elsewhere.

Blum's story is told from the perspectives of three diverse personalities: Billy Burns, head of the William J. Burns Detective agency, later to head what would become the FBI, hired to find the bombers; Clarence Darrow, hired by the AFL to defend the bombers; and D.W. Griffith, silent screen director and friend to Burns, who had made a film for Burns to help him trap a murderer, and who had made films about management and labor disputes and had explored other social issues in his work, notably race relations and the Ku Klux Klan in Birth of a Nation. Burns was actually sympathetic to the union cause and Darrow was nearly ruined by accusations of jury tampering in his involvement with this case. Darrow would go on to national notoriety by defending Leopold and Loeb (and sparing them the death penalty) as well as evolution in the Scopes Monkey Trial. Griffith's place in the story is tangential at best, and seemingly interjected to shine up the narrative with tales of old Hollywood, a connection that seems tailored to help sell the book to as wide an audience as possible.

I'm not a great fan of political or management/labor tales as a rule, but I do like Hollywood. The tone is very chatty and not as dry as one might expect from the subject matter, and does read more like a novel than a historical reconstruction. There are snippets of descriptions for nearly everyone in the book, using pretty entertaining imagery (Darrow is "full of Old Testament fervor," which he certainly was, and Griffith "stern, somber, imperial" a well as "menacing, like a bird of prey").

If you like historical nonfiction books, you will like this one. It's well-crafted if a little far-reaching. The book I received as an uncorrected proof for review contains no pictures to help shape the story, but the one I perused in the book store does. All in all, a solid effort of a interesting time in American life and an event that could still happen in today's climate of poor economy and job loss and disgruntled workers.

Those who think (as I did) that the bombing of Wall Street was the only act of domestic terrorism in the US in the early 20th century are in for a surprise. This is an account, both of labor vs. business and of the events that caused, and to some extent, calmed the confrontation.

I agree that D.W. Griffith's role in this is tangential but the detail that's expended on all three main characters and their motives was fascinating to me. True, things don't quite come together as in The Devil In The White City but for me, this was more than offset by the similarities to our present day concerns about terrorism and the value of labor unions. I was reminded a bit of Jack Finney's Forgotten News which, although covering a minor story, did so with an amazing amount of interesting detail. A complicated story, very well told.

As soon as I read the prologue in this book, I became hooked in the story. Blum writes in a very direct, matter-of-fact style that nonetheless manages to engage the reader. I found it hard to put this book down, because I kept wondering what would happen next.

Blum writes about the early years of the 20th century, when workers and capitalists were at their most opposite extremes. The background to the story is the social fabric of America, the unions and socialists and capitalists, all mixed together and not always on the best of terms. This era, just before the World Wars, was still steeped in the industrial age, when factories and sweatshops were plentiful. Although Blum does not dwell on the politics or ethics of the era, he shows us glimpses of this turbulent age through the actions and thoughts of the story's characters.

In the book, detective William J. Burns is the central character around which Blum weaves the story. Other main characters include lawyer Clarence Darrow and filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Blum shuttles the story back and forth between these three individuals, showing how the work they do leads them towards a nexus in history. The story follows the bombing of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, and how detective Burns becomes involved with the investigation of the bombing.

The book is easy to read (the author doesn't use a lot of jargon), and the chapters are quite short, which makes it easy to dip into this book at lunch or when time is short. This book would be quite accessible to young adult readers. I've just finished a college history class on the American West, and I found myself recognizing people in the story, and getting excited at being able to make connections to them. For true-crime buffs, or history aficionados, this book would be a welcome addition to your reading list.