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Inventing Paradise
- The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles
- Narrated by: Paul Haddad
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.
In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a violent, dusty, 29-square-mile pueblo with a few thousand souls, largely unchanged since its founding in 1781. By 1930, its size had swelled to within 96% of its current 468 square miles, housing a staggering 1.2 million people. In just 50 years, L.A. had joined the ranks of other world-class cities.
In the tradition of Mike Davis’s classic work City of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopia and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.) debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative that sheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented in Inventing Paradise, along with other little-known facts about L.A. history, including:
- How Los Angeles Times chief Harry Chandler pushed eugenics and endorsed “white spots”
- Henry Huntington’s and Moses Sherman’s trolley systems and the extortion-type practices that led to their expansion
- When Los Angeles was so desperate for water, it hired a miracle worker who promised rain
- How L.A.’s power elite peddled the lie that the Owens River used to flow into Los Angeles and rightfully belonged to the city
- When Los Angeles annexed a city in which monkeys cast votes
- How Venice, California, was not the first Venice, California
- William Mulholland’s game-changing construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which raised the city’s population ceiling from 250,000 to 2.5 million
Haddad also covers the heavy costs that came with creating paradise in such a short period of time, including car dependency, environmental problems, and deep-seated inequities between wealthy white Angelenos and people of color due to racist policies. All have left an imprint on present-day Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a city that should not exist—and yet it does. Through Inventing Paradise, Haddad shows listeners that Los Angeles is not a paradise found, but a paradise that was willed into existence, owing to the collective vision of these six Gilded Era-born tycoons.
Critic reviews
L.A. TIMES BESTSELLER
“Historian Haddad (Freewaytopia) offers a meticulous group biography of six powerful men who were behind the supercharged growth of Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century. Though Haddad describes these men as a ‘Gilded Age-reared oligarchy’ and ‘voracious capitalists,’ his aim is to add depth to one-dimensional negative depictions of them by highlighting the monumental nature of their ambitions. . . . L.A. history buffs will find much to engage them here.”—Publishers Weekly
“The author’s writing is colorful and lively, as befits this story of a special frontier place and its incredible creators. . . . Inventing Paradise is also very much a story of the dark side of Los Angeles’ colorful past. That history includes chicanery, falsehoods, outright fraud, and racism. . . . Haddad intends to bring ‘order out of chaos’ in explaining the history of LA through the golden age of its rise and its often unscrupulous founders. The book is well organized, unlike the city of Los Angeles itself! Inventing Paradise is annotated, has a bibliography, illustrations, and a list of annexations and consolidations.”—New York Journal of Books
“Paul Haddad’s Inventing Paradise is an enthralling, deeply researched account of the leaders of industry who built a small, agrarian riverside village into one of America’s largest, strangest, most alluring cities. This is a story of speculation, trickery, and greed as well as earnest, almost realized visions of a true and accessible Utopia. The research is astounding, the writing propulsive, heartfelt, and even funny. Like the best histories, this work is about who and where we are, not only recounting the past but also illuminating the future.”—Jeff Hobbs, author, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (L.A. Times Book Prize winner)
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- The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, December 1944
- By: Douglas E. Nash Sr.
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the "Dirlewanger Special Unit." Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger.
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Vicious and Immoral
- Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh
- By: John Gilbert McCurdy
- Narrated by: John Gilbert McCurdy
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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On the eve of the American Revolution, the British army considered the case of a chaplain, Robert Newburgh, who had been accused of having sex with a man. Newburgh's enemies cited his flamboyant appearance, defiance of military authority, and seduction of soldiers as proof of his low character. His opponents claimed that these supposed crimes against nature translated to crimes against the king. In Vicious and Immoral, historian John McCurdy tells this compelling story of male intimacy and provides an unparalleled glimpse inside eighteenth-century perceptions of queerness.
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Three Worlds
- Memoirs of an Arab-Jew
- By: Avi Shlaim
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing their beloved Iraq to the new state of Israel. Today the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq, at one time numbering over 130,000 and tracing its history back 2,600 years, has all but vanished.
By: Avi Shlaim
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The Rebel's Clinic
- The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
- By: Adam Shatz
- Narrated by: Terrence Kidd
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In the era of Black Lives Matter, Frantz Fanon's shadow looms larger than ever. He was the intellectual activist of the postcolonial era, and his writings about race, revolution, and the psychology of power continue to shape radical movements across the world. In this searching biography, Adam Shatz tells the story of Fanon's stunning journey, which has all the twists of a Cold War-era thriller.
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Read, don’t listen
- By Howard Schatz, MD on 07-20-24
By: Adam Shatz
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The Thistle and the Rose
- By: Linda Porter
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Tudor, the elder sister of her more famous brother Henry VIII, is the single most important Tudor figure of this era that historians have consistently overlooked. Married at thirteen to the charismatic James IV of Scotland, a man more than twice her age, she would learn the skills of statecraft that would enable her to survive his early death, and to construct a powerful position in her adopted country of Scotland as she dealt with domestic issues as well as navigating international relations with England and France.
By: Linda Porter
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Saladin
- The Sultan Who Vanquished the Crusaders and Built an Islamic Empire
- By: John Man
- Narrated by: Bruce Mann
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Saladin remains one of the most iconic figures of his age. As the man who united the Arabs and saved Islam from Christian crusaders in the twelfth century, he is the Islamic world's preeminent hero. A ruthless defender of his faith and leader, he possessed qualities that won admiration from his Christian foes.
By: John Man
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Battleground
- 10 Conflicts That Explain the New Middle East
- By: Christopher Phillips
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but instead ushered in a series of civil wars, coups, and even harsher autocracies. Tensions were exacerbated by the meddling of outsiders. The United States, for so long the dominant actor, had stepped back, leaving a vacuum behind it to be fought over. Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence.
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A Revolutionary Friendship
- Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic
- By: Francis D. Cogliano
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A Revolutionary Friendship captures the dramatic, challenging, and poignant reality that there was no single founding ideal-only compromise between friends and sometime rivals.
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The Corporation and the Twentieth Century
- The History of American Business Enterprise
- By: Richard N. Langlois
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 31 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism, brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency, why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in ruins by the end of the century?
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Before War
- On Marriage, Hierarchy, and Our Matriarchal Origins
- By: Elisha Daeva
- Narrated by: Elisha Daeva
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The book Before War will change how its listeners look at the world by exposing the female roots of Western civilization. It draws on the evidence from anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, primatology, and the shocking new genetics data, to tell the story of Western civilization. For listeners of Sapiens and The Dawn of Everything, this is about another way that our European ancestors lived, without violence, sexual shame, or social inequality. Its the story of a story that was buried and re-discovered again and again, and is once again being told, thanks to the new science of genetics.
By: Elisha Daeva
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What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?
- By: Raja Shehadeh
- Narrated by: Khalid Abdalla
- Length: 2 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A poignant, incisive meditation on Israel's longstanding rejection of peace, and what the war on Gaza means for Palestinian and Israeli futures.
By: Raja Shehadeh
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Death of the Wehrmacht
- The German Campaigns of 1942
- By: Robert M. Citino
- Narrated by: Tom Beyer
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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From the overwhelming operational victories at Kerch and Kharkov in May to the catastrophic defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad, Death of the Wehrmacht offers an eye-opening new view of that decisive year. Building upon his widely respected critique in The German Way of War, Citino shows how the campaigns of 1942 fit within the centuries-old patterns of Prussian/German warmaking and ultimately doomed Hitler's expansionist ambitions.
By: Robert M. Citino
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Populus
- Living and Dying in Ancient Rome
- By: Guy de la Bédoyère
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Frenzied crowds, talking ravens, the stench of the Tiber River: life in ancient Rome was stimulating, dynamic, and often downright dangerous. The Romans relaxed and gossiped in baths, stole precious water from aqueducts, and partied and dined to excess. From the smells of fragrant cookshops and religious sacrifices to the cries of public executions and murderous electoral mobs, Guy de la Bedoyere's Populus draws on a host of historical and literary sources to transport us into the intensity of daily life at the height of ancient Rome.
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Kinky History
- A Rollicking Journey Through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future
- By: Esmé Louise James
- Narrated by: Esmé Louise James
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Contrary to popular belief, our predecessors had all sorts of obscene hobbies long before Christian Grey hit the scene. In this enlightening romp, learn about the first instances of homosexuality on record from the ancient world and the diverse history of nonbinary gender; encounter a thousand years’ worth of hilarious and horrifying contraceptive methods; consider the positive and negative effects of the widespread availability of pornography in the digital age; and more.
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Your creative storytelling and connections!💗
- By Anonymous User on 07-15-24
What listeners say about Inventing Paradise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Breathe easy
- 07-19-24
Captivating drive
I wish my drive to work took longer! What a story! Haddad has a way of making these figures - most known to us already- understandable. He provides insight on their motives driven by heritage, fear, greed, legacy and love. If you love learning about our Los Angeles - this book will help you appreciate our city in a much wider sense.
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