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Jerry Smith's Reviews > American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century
American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century
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A most interesting read and one that had been on my list for a while and suddenly became available at the library. This historical account is written much like a lengthy and well constructed novel, that is to say the narrative weaves together several strands and a number of key protagonists in the telling of the story. In this case those threads involve Clarence Darrow, DW Griffith and Billy Burns. The first and last of these I understand but Griffith seems a little more tenuous to me, but certainly sets the tone for the times. He does have a direct input too so it is very valid to include him.
This is a broad account of the fight between labour and capital as epitomized by the bombing of the LA Times building owned by Harrison Otis, as well as other organized terrorist attacks. This is an interesting political war in its own right and is certainly well illustrated as the backdrop to this particular crime, dubbed at the time, somewhat melodramatically as "The Crime of the Century".
The tale integrates the growth of motion pictures with the labour war, the chasing of the terrorists by Burns and their defense by Darrow. These accounts sometimes leave the reader wanting to know more about the main characters and there are always autobiographies to seek out if that is the case. However here, I don't care for any of them, or find them of interest beyond the character sketches here. Nonetheless, they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged and the story that criss-crosses the US is well told and moves pretty fast.
Well worth a read. The story itself fizzles somewhat at the trial phase the the closing stages of the book therefore strike me as anticlimactic but that is hardly the fault of the author. It fills in the time very well when, as hard as it is to believe if you look at the US today, socialism was briefly in the ascendency. Also, those who think terrorism is a modern invention only needs to read this book to be disabused of that notion.
Well worth a read. Lifts the lid on the turn of the century labour struggles and it is that subject that is probably worthy of my further attention.
This is a broad account of the fight between labour and capital as epitomized by the bombing of the LA Times building owned by Harrison Otis, as well as other organized terrorist attacks. This is an interesting political war in its own right and is certainly well illustrated as the backdrop to this particular crime, dubbed at the time, somewhat melodramatically as "The Crime of the Century".
The tale integrates the growth of motion pictures with the labour war, the chasing of the terrorists by Burns and their defense by Darrow. These accounts sometimes leave the reader wanting to know more about the main characters and there are always autobiographies to seek out if that is the case. However here, I don't care for any of them, or find them of interest beyond the character sketches here. Nonetheless, they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged and the story that criss-crosses the US is well told and moves pretty fast.
Well worth a read. The story itself fizzles somewhat at the trial phase the the closing stages of the book therefore strike me as anticlimactic but that is hardly the fault of the author. It fills in the time very well when, as hard as it is to believe if you look at the US today, socialism was briefly in the ascendency. Also, those who think terrorism is a modern invention only needs to read this book to be disabused of that notion.
Well worth a read. Lifts the lid on the turn of the century labour struggles and it is that subject that is probably worthy of my further attention.
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