The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles

From bestselling author Gary Krist, the story of the metropolis that never should have been and the visionaries who dreamed it into reality
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Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California-bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges-seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world's iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles' meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digge...