It’s 1931 and men are desperate for jobs. A lucky few will get to work in the searing heat of the Nevada desert on the massive Hoover Dam, the single largest public works project in history. Their goal is to tame the mighty Colorado River with a dam that towers sixty stories high from the base of the canyon to the crest of the dam and that will create the largest manmade lake in the world.

Life and Death at Hoover Dam tells the story of a handful of these men, and the sacrifices they endured from choking on gasoline fumes in five-story tunnels that exceeded 120 degrees to dangling by slender cables from the thousand foot walls of the canyon to blast the loose rock and gravel into oblivion. And together they’ll fight the river with all their might, and perhaps their lives, as flash floods threaten to destroy all they have worked to accomplish.

Meet the Conroy brothers; David an engineer who works directly with Frank Crowe, Chief Engineer and the world’s foremost builder of dams, and Pete, his older brother who is as wild as the Colorado River itself. Pete is a crew foreman, first working on the scraping and blasting of the sheer cliff walls into which the dam must be anchored, and then in the massive forms where seven million tons of concrete will settle—some say to last a thousand years. Sean O’Donnell, a scrappy Irishman who worked on the Empire State Building in New York City whose family desperately wants him to come home. And Tony Capelli, the worker who will pay the greatest price of all—a farmer from southern California whose land will become verdant and productive once the flow of Colorado River water is assured. But prejudice is rampant against those of foreign birth, even though American citizens, and Tony will face mortal danger as he struggles to stay on the job and feed his family. In the end, these men and the 20,000 others who worked on the dam will build a monument that will make possible the palm trees of Los Angeles and the desert oasis of Phoenix. This is the story of their lives—the men who built the matchless Hoover Dam.

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Reader Reviews:

David Boyd, Civil Engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado District, working onsite at Hoover Dam

As an engineer at Hoover Dam I was asked to give a special guided tour to Jerry Borrowman, author of an upcoming book. I thought it would be like Gilligan's Island— "Just a three hour tour…." It took six hours and at the end of our time together I  was surprised to find that a real friendship had developed, based on common interests. When a draft manuscript showed up with a request to proof-read for technical and historical facts I picked it up and began reviewing the pages for facts. I soon discovered that there was much more to the book than facts and figures, although Jerry certainly gets those right—it was filled with the emotions of pride, stubbornness, determination, and the ugliness of prejudices that were prevalent during the "Depression Era". It showed the character and dedication of the workers who lived and died constructing one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders—the incomparable Hoover Dam. Life and Death at Hoover Dam is a great book for readers of all ages.

Bill Gallagher

Being a student of history and growing up in Las Vegas, I thought I knew all about the building of Hoover Dam. I even had the chance to scuba dive down to the old Concrete Plant, submerged in the waters of Lake Mead for the last 70 years. But Jerry Borrowman brings the construction of the dam to life in a way I did not think possible. His story of the drama in the everyday lives of the men who built the dam is a must read for anyone who has an interest in the growth of the southwestern United Sates. This is a fast paced story involving one of the greatest of American accomplishments. For all of us who have read Jerry’s other books, you’ll love this one. For those who are new to his writing, this is a great place to find a fascinating new author.

Mike Ramsdell – author of the best-selling book, A Train to Potevka

Jerry Borrowman’s skillful writing and attention to detail puts the reader front and center into one of man’s greatest engineering accomplishments during the last one hundred years—the construction of the magnificent Hoover Dam. His masterful use of dialogue creates intriguing characters who bring the story to life.