American lightning

de Howard Blum

A tale of murder, deceit, celebrity, media manipulation, and film as propaganda, when the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910 exposed a deadly "national dynamite plot" by trade unionists to terrorize America with one hundred bombings in a doomed attempt to force capitalism to its knees. The relentless pursuit, capture, trial, and punishment of the bombers made a national hero of master detective Billy Burns, and entangled crusading defense lawyer Clarence Darrow in a reckless, nearly career-ending scheme to bribe witnesses and jurors and throttle justice. Meanwhile, the events inspired D.W. Griffith to make his groundbreaking film The Birth of a Nation.